25 October 2023

By late October leaves and nuts are underfoot and still falling. Red oak acorns that were green on the branch in August litter the footpaths and sidewalks now.

Underneath black walnut trees it’s hard not to misstep on the yellow husked nuts. You may even be hit by a black walnut detached and dropped by a squirrel gathering nuts above you. Squirrels save time by crawling all over the tree and detaching lots of nuts. Then they scurry down to collect them. Ouch!

Keep looking down and you may find unusual nuts and seeds like these.

Even without leaves, you can identify the trees above you by knowing the nuts at your feet. This fall I’ll run a series on identifying nuts found in western Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile to kick it off …

Adam Haritan explains a few trees you can identify without even looking up in this 15-minute Learn Your Land video.

(credits are in the captions)