What's In Your Backyard 2-There's a Tree in There!
Do You Like Packages?
Really, you do like packages, we both do. Tightly wrapped, some with ribbons, every package has a mystery inside. If you attempt to peek, you spoil the surprise. We like packages. Birthdays, Christmas, and even special occasions bring out the packages and the excitement.
Let’s look at a different package. Large ones of this kind are just over 1 inch long and around ¾ inch wide. This particular “package” fits the definition of package. It is a wrapped object. The eye cannot see the contents. This “package” is, however, vastly different than a package you might receive for your birthday. It lasts much, much, longer than other presents found in packages. Oh, you want to know why I am using quotation marks around the word “package?”
Because this “package” is not wrapped in paper. This package never comes wrapped with a bow. And no one ever gives this package to someone else for a birthday or Christmas gift. At least it is very, very rare, and likely, maybe never. This package would almost certainly never be on a boy or girl’s wish list for gifts. Guess what? This “package” cannot be purchased in a store. Well, at least it is very, very rare for this “package” to be sold in stores. Besides, it would have to be an exceptionally different store. It would have to be a store which sold plants, and seeds. Our “package” is a seed. It develops on trees; BIG, old trees; tall, strong and sturdy trees. It begins in the spring on these big trees as a flower.
This package takes time to develop. From the time the BIG old tree produces flowers, till the time this seed is finally developed and ready to drop to the ground from the tree, many days pass. Actually, months pass…a part of May, all of June and July and into early August go by until this seed is finally ready for the drop to the ground. The tree releases it. Similar to what happens to the tree’s leaves, this seed develops a seal which closes and disconnects it from the tree which formed it.
Then the “package” falls to earth. It has to. It was made for earth…or the stomach of a hungry White -tailed Deer, Gray Squirrel or Turkey. Sometimes a Gray Squirrel will bury it to retrieve later when it needs food. Sometimes the seed is forgotten. We could say squirrels make forests with their nut burying behavior. Sometimes the seed lies undisturbed in just the right place and it begins a new tree without any help from wildlife, or people.
All seeds reproduce the plant that made them. That’s the law of nature. An orange tree never grows from an Elm tree. Most seeds reproduce small plants…not so large. This see is different, there’s a tree inside this seed. This seed is arranged inside as it hangs on the tree. All the parts of the new tree develop while the seed hangs there in early summer.
This package is an ACORN. Acorns make BIG Oak Trees. This makes the acorn a super seed…because it’s a seed with a tree inside!
Look at the diagram as you read. (click on the button)
The bottom tip of the seed is the remainder of the flower…the style.
The baby tree has the same name as other babies: embryo.
There are 3 parts to the embryo” Radicle, plumule, and cotyledon (Acorns have 2.)
The outside or fruit wall) of the acorn is called the Pericarp.
There is a worm which can drill through the pericarp to get at the meal inside the acorn. (See the photo for the worm and the hole!)
The entire inside of the acorn is covered with a 2nd layer of protection called the seed coat. (Clearly the worm can drill through this as well.)
The top, or cap of the acorn is called the…can you guess? Here’s your hint, take the top off of the acorn and what does it look like? It looks like a little cup.
The Red Oak Acorn and cupule is on the left, Burr Oak on the right.
The top part is called the cupule. Compare the cupules in the photos. Cupules are different in a Red Oak compared to a Burr Oak.
Yes, really, an acorn is a package.
…a living package.
It may be small at first.
But Acorns make oaks. Acorns make giant, tall, strong, long living Oak trees.
The beauty of the acorn…mystery, miracle and future tree in one compact package.
Acorns are beautiful, mysterious, and filled with a miracle. One more thing…add soil, water and sunlight and over time, the acorn package becomes a towering tree which provides shade, habitat for other animals, controls soil erosion, and when it is 20 years old and older…more acorns to feed the forest and grow the next generation of oaks.
This is a package worth our attention! The infinite wisdom of God is found in it.