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Great Acorns From
Little Oakls Grow
OVER A THOUSAND species of
oak occur in the Northern
Hemisphere, and Texas is blessed
with 40 varieties including numerous
hybrids. Most Texas oaks are majestic
trees with towering crowns and
are both economically and esthetically
valuable. But one oak variety,
covering perhaps a million acres of
Texas soil, is not always favorably
accepted because of a high tannic
acid content that can poison grazing
livestock. Properly named Quercus
havardii, but commonly known as
shin oak or shinnery, this dwarfed
oak claims the distinction of being
the world's smallest oak. Most of the
plants stand less than three feet tall
when fully mature.
Diminutive shin oak forests occur
throughout the Central Great Plains
in Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico,
eastern Colorado, Nebraska, and
Kansas, as well as Texas. On dry,
sandy, limestone or red clay soils,
the plant communities are characterized
by an even distribution of
waist-high plants broken occasionally
by taller clusters several feet high.
In suitable soils, shinnery effectively
excludes all other plants, even plants
that are recognized as persistent invaders.
One such unbroken area
covers over 7,000 acres in Wheeler
County in the Texas Panhandle.
Shinnery dominates the clay slopes
of Palo Duro Canyon and the Pease
by NORREL WALLACE
and Wichita rivers, as well as several
thousand acres of sandhills
throughout West Texas.
Externally, shin oak resembles
young post oak seedlings, but other
oaks can't produce as many large
acorns. During normal rainfall years,
shin oak produces large, sweet acorns
in abundance that are relished by
wild birds and animals. Prairie chickens
thrive on shin oak acorns in the
Texas Panhandle. Dense shinnery is
also vitally important as nesting and
escape cover, and the abundance or
scarcity of shin oak from year to year
directly corresponds with the abundance
or scarcity of the prairie
chicken.
By some quirk of nature, a few
shin oak plants grow 15 to 20 feet
tall with six to eight-inch diameter
trunks. Taller shin oaks almost always
grow in clusters called shin oak
motts, which occur irregularly
throughout shin oak range. Livestock,
as well as wildlife, use such
motts for shade in summer and as
windbreaks in winter. No one knows
for certain why most mature shin oak
plants are three feet tall and an isolated
cluster of the same species
shoots up to more usual tree height.
One theory for this oddity is that soil
beneath motts is more fertile than
surrounding land. Another supposition
is that mott-forming shin oak is
a vigorous hybrid variety that outgrows
smaller surrounding oaks on
the same soil type. However, it is not
certain why some are short and
others tall.
On waste areas, shin oaks produce
surface litter and sink heavy roots
deep into the subsoil, effectively preventing
erosion. One root system
from a three-foot oak in the Monahans
sand dune area was meticulously
traced. Roots extended over
90 feet, perhaps explaining why shin
oak is so drought resistant.
But despite soil holding qualities
and value to wildlife, the shin oak
is scorned and frequently destroyed
by landowners. During early spring,
before other edible plants emerge,
shin oak buds are eagerly sought by
livestock, with disastrous results in
* Continued on Page 30
MAY, 1965
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