Hi everyone, There is a small greenspace I regularly visit in North Surrey and have spotted at least 3 oak trees. I was hoping they are Garry Oaks but from looking at the leaves I'm thinking they are probably a different species. It's hard to estimate their ages but One of them is probably about 10-12 feet tall, another around 7-8 feet and the third a seedling. I can't find any Oaks in this greenspace that might have been the parents, so I'm thinking maybe a squirrel brought the acorns in from Oaks that might be used for lining the streets? Sorry I did not take any pictures of the trees themselves as they current have no leaves (Actually the seedling is still holding it's leaves but they are brown). I did pick up a couple leaves from the largest tree and took a picture. Apologies for the quality. I'm hoping someone here might be able to identify the species, if not then I can always take another picture when they leaf out in Spring. Thank You.
Are you sure Quercus robur is on the BC invasive species list? I don't see it there although it is described as naturalized. Invasive Species Council of British Columbia AND Identify - Invasive Species Council of British Columbia E-Flora BC List of Invasive Species in British Columbia
I do not know Quercus robur (I am a Garry oak fan - so anything BC Oak triggers my interest) and I am wondering if the original post is indeed robur Whether invasive or not (I am not dismissing invasive risks in BC — simply seeking ID out of curiosity ) this is interesting i am curious — is this on a park or schoolyard or … So possibly it was planted on purpose by city employees?
It's in a natural forested area by a ravine that's been classified as a park, so more of small block of forest that's been left over rather than a cultivated park. It's mostly cedar/doug firs/hemlocks/maples in there. I was a bit surprised to find the 3 oaks, all of them young. I think squirrels might have been the ones that did it.
You mean like this? (Clearly I needed a light nostalgic moment ) Rocky the Flying Squirrel - Wikipedia seriously the local native Douglas squirrel is a busy gardener … she has moved many of the autumn bulbs I planted
More likely a Steller's Jay - jays are far better than squirrels at dispersing acorns; for starters, they can fly with them several km, whereas squirrels only travel short distances.
Not questioning for a moment that Steller's Jays but I wonder why they would do that? Taking them back to babies in a nest maybe?
Jays bury them and forget where they put them. I've seen them bury sunflower seeds and come back for them later. I have a couple of oaks started this way, too.
Douglas squirrels also seem to forget where they bury many Garry Oak acorns. If they did come back for this stash though, I'm afraid they were disappointed. I wonder if squirrels know enough to choose only viable acorns and ignore those that are empty?
Squirrels have an excellent sense of smell and can easily tell which nuts are viable. I've often looked for hazelnuts or acorns and found that the squirrels beat me to them but left behind lots of empty or rotten shells. The ones I find buried in my garden are always viable.
As in the Seattle area spontaneous occurrences of Quercus robur have been happening in the Lower Mainland for years, see the link at my previous post.
yes that is very interesting atlas you linked i tested with a couple of other names too i note this Surrey BC oak identified above is also up near Yale BC with the mystery Garry oaks and in Squamish? brrr that’s cold on winter outflow days (is that tree still there I wonder)
Scatter hoarding - spread them over a wide area, less risk of them being stolen. I don't know how much research has been done with Steller's Jay, but a lot has been done with the related Clark's Nutcracker and its storing of pine nuts; the figures are quite astonishing, and totally rewrite the definition of 'bird-brained'. A single bird will store up to 100,000 pine nuts, scattered over a 100 km² area in caches of around 10 nuts in each (so 10,000 caches); it can then remember exactly where each cache is with >95% accuracy for up to 8 months (they use stored nuts from the previous autumn to feed their chicks in spring), know which caches it has emptied and doesn't need to return to, and can even find caches when they are buried under a metre of snow (yes, they've been seen flying up to a featureless snowfield, dig down, and emerge a few minutes later with their nuts). Now see if you can equal that for a feat of memory! Since they store more nuts than they need (insurance policy), the uneated nuts germinate to produce new nut pine forests (also applies to nuts stored by birds that don't survive the winter).
