Native Plants

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Monday - October 05, 2009

From: Santa Rosa, CA
Region: California
Topic: Trees
Title: Acorns for craft project in Santa Rosa CA
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Where can I find mature northern red oaks, northern pin oaks in Santa Rosa, CA 95404 in order to get their cute chubby acorns for a craft project I'm doing?

ANSWER:

Are you ready to take a road trip? The closest Quercus rubra (northern red oak) grows to California is far eastern Nebraska. And the nearest Quercus ellipsoidalis (northern pin oak) is in one county in northern Missouri. We realize there are probably specimens of both trees growing in California, but we don't know where.

On the other hand, Quercus agrifolia (California live oak) and Quercus dumosa (coastal sage scrub oak) both are native to the vicinity of Sonoma County. We had no pictures of the acorns of either tree in our Native Plant Image Gallery, but here are pictures, including acorns, of northern red oak and northern pin oak from Google. Hope you can find some and that they are chubby enough.

From our Native Plant Image Gallery:

Quercus agrifolia