TWO BOTTOMLAND OAKS

     Pin oaks and swamp white oaks are handsome trees at home in moist soil along creeks, and in bottomlands in the eastern half of the United States.  Associates of sycamores, silver maples, river birches, American elms and other kinds of bottomland trees, some of these floodplain oak trees grow to be large and majestic.  All those bottomland trees, including the two oaks, provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife species.  And their roots help hold down the soil along waterways.

     The elegant pin oaks are common along waterways and in bottomlands.  Their lower limbs droop like arms to the ground and they have small acorns, each with a tiny "pin" at its tip.

     The stately swamp white oaks have contorted boughs and an overall rugged look.  But they are not common: I've only seen a few in my lifetime, though I never made an extensive search for them.   

     Pin oaks and swamp white oaks are planted on lawns for their beauties; the pin oaks far more commonly.  And its there that most people view these beautiful oaks.   

     Because each of the several kinds of oak trees in the United States has adapted to a niche different than that of its relatives, acorns are available for wildlife to eat in many habitats, including bottomlands along waterways.  Several kinds of birds and mammals, including jays, crows, wild turkeys, squirrels, mice, white-tailed deer, black bears and other species consume lots of acorns.  And jays and a variety of rodents stash acorns for future hard times when food is scarce.  

     Acorns are pretty in themselves.  They are warm-brown and have "shingled" petite caps that they developed in.  Acorns are decorative on oak trees, until they fall to the ground, or are plucked from their twigs by birds and mammals.   

     Some of the larger, majestic individuals of both oak species have varied-sized cavities where wind tore limbs from the trees.  Those hollows become good homes and nurseries for wood ducks, barred owls, titmice, raccoons, honey bees and other kinds of floodplain wildlife.

     Both these bottomland oaks are attractive in fall when the green chlorophyll in their leaves dies and their warm colors are then visible to us.  Much of the foliage of pin oaks turns red, while the leaves of swamp white oaks become yellow.  The foliage of both these kinds of oaks, and other bottomland trees, brighten the floodplains in autumn.

     The handsome pin oaks and swamp white oaks share the bottomland habitats they adapted to.  And there they are attractive to us and provide food and cover for wildlife.    

         

        

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