Originally Posted by
bronko22000
No chestnut oak acorns are much larger than any of the other oaks. Also the leaves of the chestnut oak although do have rounded lobes like the white oak have a profile more resembling a horse chestnut or buckeye tree. (narrower at the base and broadening toward the outer end)
The bark on a chestnut oak is easy to identify too. It is very thick with deep grooves and high broken ridges. Do a search and you can see the difference.
The acorns of the chestnut oak are edible by the deer but they don't particularly care for them if there are other acorns about because they are the most bitter.
Now there are some different oaks in the southern US that I'm not familiar with. There is a swamp oak, live oak, pin oak, etc.
I have two oak trees in my yard at my FL house that produce a ton of small acorns about 3/8"-1/2" in diameter and just about as long. I think they are live oaks.
I'm pretty positive Chestnut oak trees are in the white oak group.
Anyway that is unimportant...White oaks or not you obviously already know they are not a preferred acorn and that is not what you are hunting.
On the other end while deer generally don't prefer the red oaks they do really like pin oaks which are red oaks.
Pin oaks fall earlier than the white oaks so if your white oaks are just starting the deer may still be on the pin oaks.
Its an interesting and extremely under rated conversation. You would think acorns would be an extremely hot topic. There is certainly plenty to learn.