Oak Polination Questions

[Teeder]

It's my understanding oaks can self pollinate, but set fruit much better with another tree in the family nearby. So, my assumption is that if an oak has acorns forming, it most likely has been pollinated by another close by tree, correct?
I have a chinkapin oak that has acorns for the first time this year. There are no other chinkapins (or any other white varieties) anywhere close to my area, but this tree is surrounded by about 3 dozen english oaks, a chestnut oak, a swamp white and a swamp chestnut that were all flowering on my 10 acres. A couple english and the chestnut oak are within 30 yards up-wind of the chinkapin.
Its probably just wishful thinking, but how likely is it that these acorns would produce a hybrid?
The tree is only about 8' tall, any suggestions on how to protect the acorns, so nothing gets them before I do?
Thanks!

 

[ethompson]

I have a swampchestnutt oak all by its lonesome. Its been that way since we planted. What I mean is there is no other SCO near this tree. Trust me I've looked. Although there are 1000's of other oaks nearby. (only red oaks and saw tooth.) After thought" property has several dozen post oaks (white oak). Always forget about these trees. Tree is roughly 17 yrs old. Last year it had its first ever bumper crop. They were huge and plentiful. This tree gets watered and fertilized along with the grass in the front yard. It doesn't go through the hardships like most trees. It's a memorial tree.
So somehow this tree is getting plenty of fertilization one way or the other. PS Every early spring for some strange reason the timber company that surrounds our property brings in 100's of bee boxes.

 

[The Fishman]

Define close. Are there any other chinquapins on surrounding properties? Several studies have shown that pollen can travel long distances.

This study on bur oaks found that average pollination distance for within stand pollination was 75 m. They also found that more pollen came from greater than 50 m away than from the nearest neighbors. The researchers found that a lot of pollen came from trees outside of the stand that were several hundred meters away. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewd...ecKW9zrQJXqwkkfhaZ7qu3B1CYwwEqK6jYrq5OEN6_4NE

This study on three species of red oaks found that “Pollen dispersal in the example population was extensive, with an average father–mother distance of 178 m.”
https://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/clarklab/files/2011/01/molEcol_moran2011.pdf

This study found that 6-27 percent of the successful pollinations were from oak stands outside of the area studied with the nearest largest stand being 30 km away.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2013.1070

Key results from this study found “Pollen donors from outside the study sites accounted for between 46% and 53% of paternities and did not differ significantly among sites, indicating that similar high levels of gene flow occurred at all three sites. Within stands, the mean pollination distance ranged from 42 to 70 meters, and when accounting for outside pollinations, mean pollination distances were well over 100 meters.”
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3732/ajb.0900390

I find the results from this study hard to believe, but I assume the researchers knew what they were doing. “We show that pollen-mediated gene flow across more than 80 km in this wind-pollinated tree species contributed at least 35% of all successful pollinations in the investigated isolated and small oak stand.”
https://www.researchgate.net/public...e_Gene_Flow_into_an_Isolated_Relict_Oak_Stand

 

[Teeder]

Thanks for the reply. That will give me some reading material.
This area has no chinkapins. Its not a common tree around here. The only one I know of was planted along a trail about 50 miles to the south. There are very few white oak varieties in my county. Most are the next county south / southwest and not necessarily upwind.

 

[FarmerDan]

One species of oak can and often does crosspollinate with another but only with oaks in their same group; reds with other reds, whites with other whites. The result is a tree with some hybridization but, as I understand it, the percentage split of genetic traits is unclear. So a chinquapin pollinated by another species in it's group will produce others that look like chinquapin's with some minor genetic twist.

 

[Teeder]

I'm sure the split percentage varies. Just like human genealogy. My brother and I have the same parents, but we have different amounts of ancestry. I have quite a few schuette's oaks planted, all from the same source. They vary from looking very close to a swo to looking very close to a bur, with most more 50/50 between.

 

[Angus 1895]

I wonder if hybrid acorns will have a different morphology than the self pollination acorns?

 

[Teeder]

I'd guess the acorns would look exactly as a normal chinkapin, but the resulting tree would have varying characteristics.