5 Fun Facts About the Oak Tree

The oak tree, it's pretty iconic but is there really anything interesting about it? The answer is yes, so here are a few fun facts about America's National Tree.

1. There are three main types of oaks.

Let's start with the basics, the three main types of oak trees are the White Oak, Red Oak, and the Black Oak. You can identify what type of oak you're looking at in the way you'd expect, the bark of a white oak would be grayish in color, while a red oak's bark would be dark reddish brown, and black oak bark would be black.

2. The oak tree isn't only the national tree of America.

 Various types of oaks are the national trees of many other countries, including England, Estonia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Jordan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Wales.

3. Oak tree acorns are poisonous.

If fed in large amounts to livestock, the acorns and leaves of oak trees are poisonous and can lead to serious side effects like kidney damage and gastroenteritis due to the high amounts of tannic acid in them. Humans can eat them however, after the leaching of the tannins. And although most livestock can't eat the acorns, there is one kind that can, the domestic pig can eat a diet consisting entirely of acorns if its done the right way.

4. Oak trees are both male and female.

Each oak tree has male and female flowers. The female flowers are too small to see well without a magnifying glass, but the male flowers can be seen as small structures hanging off of catkins, which are stalk-like appendages.

5. There is a very big oak tree living Mandeville, Louisiana.

Its' called the "Seven Sisters Oak", and its the largest living oak tree in the world. It is also quite old, estimated to be between 500 to 1000 years old. It was named the "Seven Sisters Oak" because it's owner was one of seven sisters.