You’d scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don’t view me with a critic’s eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
— David Everett, Lines written for a School Declamation
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Oaktrees hold on to summer with a fight, then dominate the winter sky with an assertive silhouette. With their brownish, fall colors, oaks may be less showy than other trees. But they keep their leaves longer, sometimes to Christmas and the new year.
Trees drop their leaves in fall, explains Peter Bristol, curator of woody plants at Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, when an abscission layer, a ring of corky cells, forms at the base of the leaf stem. But oak trees form that layer much later in the season, especially immature, non-fruiting trees. And since oaks take their time maturing, there are a lot of young ones around. That’s also one reason homeowners shy away from planting the slow-growing oak trees. As Bristol says, “People are impatient.”
Fortunately, oak trees are not.