Wayne

Wayne Only one in 10,000 acorns results in a tree. That tree is me. My mother was forty when she bore me I'm an oak of the genus Quercus I have spirally arranged leaves In spring, I sprout both male catkins And tiny female flowers. My fruit is a nut called an acorn A cup, known as a cupule I'm a source of tannic acid, Which helps to guard me from fungi and from insects. One of my ancestors is a heart of oak beam In the frame of the Église Saint-Girons in Monein, France Another served on a high status Viking longship in the 10th century. I'm directly descended from a plank in the debating chamber Of the House of Commons in London My grandfather's a barrel for Scotch whisky He was charred before use, He contributes to the colour, taste, and aroma of the contents My grandmother, God rest her soul, Was chipped to smoke fine salmon for the queen. My French cousins assist in the growing of truffles, The black Périgord truffle and the white Piedmont truffle Mushrooms adore my shade, I'm a home for many So many lodgers! Kindred in the highlands of Mexico and the Andes Have been felled for coffee plantations and cattle ranching Others are axed for timber, fuel-wood and charcoal 78 wild oak species are in danger of extinction! Can our world sustain such losses? Sudden oak death from a water mouldcould kill me Oak wilt, is also a fatal Other dangers are wood-boring beetles, root rot Other nasties are Oak apples, galls made by the gall wasp We oaks are the national trees of many countries America, Bulgaria, Cyprus, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Moldova, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Wales. During the Third Reich of Nazi Germany, Oak leaves were used for military valour On the Knights' Cross of the Iron Cross. We also symbolize rank in the USA In Greek mythology, we were the trees sacred To Zeus, king of the gods His priests divined his pronouncements By interpreting the rustling of our leaves To the Druids, we were holy. We were sacred to the Norse god, Thor. In Wicca, the Oak King Is one of the Sun God's two faces Another famous ancestor saved a King Charles II, hid in his branches Oak Apple Day marked that time In the Jurupa Oak tree was our beginning In Riverside County, California - she is 13,000 years old. The Major Oak is a thousand years of age Growing in Sherwood Forest, Robin Hoodsheltered beneath her I am the fourteenth oak up Craigandarroch, Ballater, Hill of the oaks, of ancient lineage I am sib to the Mary Rose, Built in Portsmouth for Henry VIII Made almost entirely of oak, 600 of us were felled to build her! I am oak, of the genus Quercus But you can call me Wayne