A little burr after the chill

While the recent snow melt revealed all sorts of over-wintered treasures, there are no acorns like this one just lying about in the woods. A tasty treat like this would have been greedily eaten by squirrels months ago. I plucked this specimen from my box of nature flotsam and jetsam that I haul to my STILL workshops for people to rummage through and make flat-lay compositions.

Bur oaks are kind of white oak, and among the most massive oaks in North America. Its acorns are the largest of any North American oaks. The bur oaks are the slowest growing oaks (~12 inches per year), which makes me feel very fortunate to have several of them on our property which I can steward and protect.

dried bur oak leaf with acorn (Quercus macrocarpa)

p.s. both bur oak and burr oak are acceptable spellings