Nor am I talking about other people who sometimes choose to come onto the golf course, thus putting their lives at risk from errant shots. Although “nuts” is an apt term for both of the above classes of people.
Today I’m talking about another kind of nuts.
Get your minds out of the gutter! I mean nuts from trees!
Okay, here’s an example:
This is a small-to-average-size pecan. We have pecan trees lining the fairways, and sometimes in the middle of our fairways at my local city park golf course.
Next I have a shot of a slightly larger pecan. This is the size I look for as I’m walking towards my golf ball after a shot. Usually it’s a short walk, but I DO pick up the occasional medium-to-large pecan, crack the shell, and snack on the meat inside. This time of year they are plentiful and delicious.
A few days ago I mentioned Live Oak trees, and told you that they produce acorns (although their leaves do not look anything like oak leaves. Well, here’s an example of the acorns from a live oak. Typically the tree will retain the little “cup” the acorn grows in, and when the acorn is ripe it turns brown and falls to the ground. I picked a green one off of a tree to show you the entire thing, so you’d recognize its similarity to the Oak acorns you may be more accustomed to seeing.
And speaking of the acorns you’re accustomed to seeing from regular oak trees, we have some of those here as well. But you know how people always say that “Everything’s bigger in Texas?” Well, in some cases it’s true.
Those Live Oak acorns are similar in size to the acorns I used to gather from oaks in the northeast. You agree? I’ve seen some bigger, but not more than maybe...what? Twice as big?
Well here are those same two Live Oak acorns next to a Texas Oak acorn.
Bigger indeed!
10 comments:
Aaaaaaaaaaaa!! Mutant acorns!!!
John, what if THOSE things attack?!?
There really are all kinds of nuts on the golf course.
OKay! You win. You have bigger nuts!
What can I say. Size matters.
John
Duke, I can't get the scale of those nuts sorry, the coin keeps changing size between every shot !
I guess Texas has its fair share of nuts. But that one is sure big.
r.e., Good point. I'll look closely for any signs.
Rob, The nuts weren't ON a scale. Weight wasn't the issue.
Steve, Texans have a saying that all the BEST fruits and nuts come from California. Just not necessarily the biggest.
John, we should probly tell 'em how we pronounce "pecan" here in Texas. It's puh-CAHN. Only Yankees pee in cans.
Oooh, I remember walking around picking up pecans right off the ground, cracking and eating them. Youm! I also remember the loquat tree and grapefruit tree we had in our yard in Corpus. It seems like we had some other kind of fruit tree too, I can't remember. And Grandma had a pecan and a mulberry tree. Anyway, when we were playing outside, we never had to come in for a snack, we'd just climb a tree and get something.
Nothing compares to the delight of watching your drive slice through the canopy of the noble oak and hearing the pitter patter of hundreds of acorns trickling down through the branches . . .
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