In Praise of... Acorns
"From tiny acorns, mighty oak trees grow" so let's find out more.
Hello, I’m doing a series of longer essays - “In Praise of …” where I flex my research muscles to sing the praises of a particular aspect of nature. Maybe a common creature we don’t think about much, something more often despised than loved, or something that isn’t well known but deserves the limelight. It’s about thinking about the natural world more deeply and how it is an integral part of human life and culture. All in a hopefully accessible and interesting way. If you want to know more about anything, I’ll provide links throughout.
This is longer than my usual posts, so settle in with a cuppa! If reading via email you may need to click the link at the bottom to read the full essay.
The humble acorn, beloved by small children (and much bigger ones), squirrels, and Piglet from Winnie The Pooh. Plucked from the woodland floor, fingers investigating the contrast between the smooth nut and the bumpy cup it nestles in, then tucked into a pocket as a talisman. If you live or grew up in the Northern Hemisphere, I guess you probably know what I’m talking about, even if the version you’re thinking of, is slightly different from the one I’m used to in the UK.
But what are they? Why do they exist? What do they do? Follow me as I take you on a journey through all things acorn.
First - the science bit. Acorns are the nuts of Oak trees. All the 500 odd oak trees (genus Quercus) produce them, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, but a couple are native to the Southern Hemisphere and they have been introduced to places like Australia. Oaks can be evergreen or deciduous and are found in temperate and tropical climates. They only produce acorns once they are around 20-30yrs old. But I don’t want to get distracted by the tree, this is all about the acorn.
So what is a nut? What exactly is an acorn for? I’ll keep it simple as a) I’m not a botanist) b) there is so much else I want to tell you. It’s the way the tree makes more trees. That little hard green (then brown) nugget nestled in its protective cup contains everything to grow a new oak tree, including enough food - it comes with its own packed lunch! The magic happens when it gets to a suitable place, in suitable conditions and then it springs into action pushing out a root and then a stem.
I say suitable, this one thought being nestled amongst the moss on the trunk of an oak tree was suitable enough to start sending out its root!
Usually, trees (and plants) want their seed to disperse away to not compete for resources. This is usually done by animals - see further below. But some decide they don’t want to leave home. In a temperate rainforest in North Wales, I found lots of tiny Oak seedlings underneath the canopy of their parents.
Depending on the species of Oak, the acorns, while basically the same, have differences in size, shape, and the way they attach to the tree. I spent quite a bit of time recently sat on a log trying to work out if I’d found English Oak and Sessile Oak acorns. Hindered by the fact the species can hybridise and that most of them had fallen out of their cups thus losing their stalks (a key id feature)!
So that’s the purpose of an acorn from the Oak tree’s perspective. But squirrels have another use for this pocket packed lunch. It is an excellent balanced energy rich food source so they are favourite foods for so many creatures - jays, woodpeckers, mice, bears, and deer. There is even a dung beetle - the Southern Iberian that enjoys them - this image from the research paper is so cute! And of course pigs such as Piglet from Winnie The Pooh (although he struggles to pronounce it as we do).
“I'm planting a haycorn, so that it can grow up into an oak tree”. He continues, “It's a very difficult thing, planting, unless you know how to do it”. Piglet in A.A. Milne
Traditionally pigs would be turned out into oak woodlands in autumn to fatten up, known as pannage. It still happens as part of conservation management in some areas in the UK such as the New Forest. Does this happen in any other countries?
You may think the Oak tree doesn’t want all its precious nuts eaten. It partly protects its precious load with tannins, a substance toxic to most. Even those who do eat them often have to make them more edible by soaking them. But, actually, being taken away from the Mother Tree is its ingenious plan to spread its offspring. Aside from the sneaky creatures (some birds for example) that swipe them unripe off the tree and eat them in situ, the oak tree is counting on the acorns being taken away and stashed by creatures such as European Jays and squirrels, or buried into the leaf litter by the snouts of pigs. Jays in particular are clever and remember where most of them are, but never all and so those left uneaten start the long journey to becoming mighty oaks. For this reason, Jays are known as the Master Tree Planters and are thought to be responsible for ‘planting’ and therefore increasing the spread of Oak woodlands.
Oak trees can even control this. If you live in an area with plenty of oak trees, you may have noticed some years there are more acorns than usual. It does vary according to weather but the trees can control how much they produce. This is called a mast year and trees do this to ensure more of their seed/nuts are produced than can be eaten. A ‘bust’ year controls the amount of food and so less of the creatures that eat them survive. What is more amazing is that trees communicate with each other to create a mast year!
So, that’s the botany bit. But acorns are so much more than that. They have a rich association with humans; as a food and in culture and folklore.
Let’s start with its name in different languages.
acorn - English
agern - Danish
eikel - Dutch
gland - French
Eichel - German
aculos - Greek
akorn - Icelandic
dearcán - Irish
ekollon - Swedish
Notice anything? (surely it’s not just the phonics/literacy geek in me?)
Now let’s go back in time; in Middle English it was acorne coming from Old English ǣcern, which itself came from Proto-Germanic akraną which referred to the fruit of forest trees, thus linking it with other Scandinavian and Germanic languages. But its roots go further, as we can see a link with the Ancient Greek word for acorn (and oak) - ákulos and Latin - äkʊɫ̪ɔs̠. To disappear down an etymological rabbit hole go to this website.
Why do we like them?
The word Acorn seems to be everywhere, doesn’t it? When I started this research, the first web entry was for an Investment firm! Another quick search and I found numerous community organisations using it. Those of a similar age and location (UK) to me might remember Acorn computers! Does this have something to do with its symbolism?
Acorns have always been a part of human lives. It’s not just the animals that prized their energy-intense goodness. While they are toxic in their raw form, we have worked out ways to prepare them to make them edible by leaching them, effectively flushing out the tannins. Incidentally, when jays and squirrels cache them, groundwater might do this. The nuts could then be processed into things such as flour and stored, often for longer than other foods. This made it a staple food in Ancient Iberia (modern Spain) and used in popular dishes in Korean and Kurdish culture. They were used as a replacement for other types of grain in times of famine; by the lower classes in Ancient Greece and during the Japanese Jōmon period. It even became a coffee substitute during wars such as the American Civil War and in Germany in WW1. See the Wikipedia entry on this. Do you know of any other culinary uses for acorns?
Acorns have particular significance for Indigenous American peoples. Some Native American Oaks such as the California Black Oaks naturally have lower tannin levels thus easier to prepare. The prevalence of a larger number of species (compared to Europe) meant they were a reliable food source. The importance of the Oaks and their understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things means Indigenous people work hard to protect and support the Oak trees through methods that Modern Western arboriculture and agriculture are only beginning to understand such as controlled fires to manage pests which in turn breaks down leaf litter faster fertilising the soil and providing space for the dominant Oaks to grow.
The acorn has symbolic importance throughout Europe, from Ancient Rome and Greece to Celtic and Scandinavian cultures. It was used in fertility and immortality rituals by the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Goddess Diana/Artemis was often represented wearing an acorn necklace. It is a symbol of wisdom, and Druids were said to eat them to gain the Oak’s knowledge and divine the future. For this reason, the Oak tree was sacred to them and acorns are often found in Celtic imagery. By carrying an acorn as a talisman, you carried with you its protective powers. In Norse mythology, the God Thor was often portrayed holding an acorn. Some of its symbolism comes from the Oak Tree but it stands on its own as well. It represents the cycle of life, growth and personal development as it grows into the mighty Oak, bringing us the popular phrase - From tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow. The first mention of this exact phrase seems to be from America in the mid-19th century but there have been iterations of it throughout history from Aristotle to Emerson, and even Chaucer - “as an ook cometh of a little spyr”.
And its use continues in modern culture. It was used as a symbol by both sides in the English Civil War presumably for power and protection (I’m counting that as modern as opposed to the more ancient cultures above!) It is the waymark symbol for the National Walking Trails in England and Wales, maybe because of the acorn’s association with growth and potential. So maybe ponder a little longer when you see this little sign on a footpath.
Acorns have a wonderful place in children’s culture. Those of a certain age might remember the Acorn Fairy from Cecily Mark Barker’s Flower Fairies Books - first published in the 1920’s. I still have my copies from childhood. The Acorn Fairy, dressed in its acorn cup hat may have inspired others to use acorn cups to adorn dolls and other creatures. Did you do this? The photographer David M Bird has taken the acorn cup hat creatures a step further with his stunningly beautiful Becorn creations. He carefully creates characters from natural resources, and photographs them having wonderful interactions in the natural world. Do have a look at his website. The Hidden Folk characters in
’s children’s books also use acorn cups and the character Moss wears one as its hat. I highly recommend these rich, beautiful tales, that weave through warnings of the damage we are doing to our planet. Click here to find them in my UKBookshop store. *Acorns are also found in contemporary culture. Beuy’s Acorns was an art installation at the Tate Modern by Ackroyd and Harvey. They took inspiration from Joseph’s Beuys 7000 Oaks social sculpture in Germany in the 1980s by taking 100 acorns from his original trees to grow on. These were installed on the Tate Modern’s terrace in 2021 as a statement on the current climate and environmental emergency.
And on that note of the acorn as a symbol of what we need to protect, I leave you with the Acorn spell, from The Lost Words project by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. If you don’t know about this project to protest against certain nature words being removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary please have a look at Jackie’s website, and the book itself*
The acrostic poems were then wonderfully spun into music by the Spell Songs collective of Musicians. Watch one version here on Youtube and the original spell on Spotify
Thank you for getting this far! I hope this has been an illuminating journey into the world of the acorn. I certainly enjoyed researching it all. I apologise now if I have misrepresented anything, I have tried to cross reference all my sources (hyperlinks are given throughout the essay).
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So there were no acorns under the oaks on top
of Saddlescombe at the weekend
Have they all been eaten or are there male and female oak trees?
Wow, I didn't know an oak had to be that old to bear acorns. So fascinating. Oaks have always been my favourite tree and they are even wiser than I thought! Thank you