Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Something Surprising!

If squirrels dream, this is what they dream about. The world's biggest Mockernut, discovered yesterday on a suburban lawn in West Nashville-



Tennessee is Nut Country. Pecans.Acorns.Walnuts.Pignuts. This state even sent a man named after a nut tree to the White House-"Old Hickory" Andrew Jackson.


I have seen Mockernut hickories before. Sometimes in the fall I collect a bag of them when I walk at the park, and bring them home to the porch chipmunks. Never have I seen any this big.Mice are said to eat them,but it is hard to see a mouse eating a nut that is big enough for him to move in to.


I looked in vain in my old "Trees of North America" by C.Frank.Brockman for any description of a gigantic mockernut.


Perhaps this is a sport or a mutation.Perhaps as we speak a giant race of wood mice is evolving to take on this most impressive nut.


Perhaps even the chipmunks are telling themselves "We need to get bigger teeth!"





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1 comment:

Out on the prairie said...

Never have seen these,there is a large variety of hickory in few counties in the SE part of the state