I'm in the Charlotte, NC area. Our oaks and hickories have produced just fine this year. I don't know how the numbers compare to mast years, but they certainly did produce fruit this year. One related note of interest, though-- last fall, I was searching through a woods for seeds of a local magnolia and found none-- only a very few of what appeared to be early aborted fruits. We had had a very late hard frost that spring, followed by a long-lasting severe drought. I figured one of the weather factors, the other, or the combination likely caused the trees to produce no seeds.
Carrie DeJaco -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Inouye Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 12:59 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: [ECOLOG-L] no acorn mast A front-page article in today's Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR200811 2902045.html?hpid=topnews describes the failure of the acorn mast this year over a large area around Washington, D.C. Also hickory nuts. It should have been (based on historical patterns) a good year for the oaks. Was there a similar failure in other parts of the US (or elsewhere)? David Inouye
