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Roasted acorn flour is a main ingredient in sweet cakes special to Kurdish areas of Iran and Iraq. [29] [30] Acorns have frequently been used as a coffee substitute, particularly when coffee was unavailable or rationed.
Acorns have bowl-shaped caps that cover one third of the nut. Acorns usually mature in autumn. The quantity of acorns produced can vary year to year, producing about 32,000 acorns one year and very few the next. Germination of acorns is highly correlated with the amount of moisture during the rainy season. [7]
Illustration of Quercus lamellosa, showing acorns in clusters, with visible rings on their cups. The ring-cupped oaks (synonym genus Cyclobalanopsis), native to eastern and southeastern tropical Asia. They have corns with distinctive cups bearing concrescent rings of scales. [2]
The acorns are almost entirely covered by their cup, hence the name overcup. [3] The cup has gray, pubescent scales. The acorns also have a unique spongy shell that make them buoyant. [8] The pericarp of overcup oak acorns is unusually large for oaks and makes up 50% of acorn mass. The pericarp only makes up 30% of mass in other oak trees. [6]
In North Africa, acorns have been pressed to make acorn oil: the oil content can be as high as 30%. Oaks have also been used as fodder, both leaves and acorns being fed to livestock such as pigs. Given their high tannin content, acorns have often been leached to remove tannins before use as fodder. [91]
The acorns are medium to dark brown and range from 2 to 3 cm (3 ⁄ 4 to 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) in length. The caps have deep stippling and are found most often as singlets, but occasionally as doublets. The acorns ripen from October to November. [10] Viable acorns germinate in their first winter, and none remain by mid-winter.
The fruits (acorns) are borne in clusters of 2–3 on a long peduncle (stalk) 4–8 cm long. Each acorn is 1.5–4 cm long, ovoid with a pointed tip, starting whitish-green and becoming brown, then black. As with all oaks, the acorns are carried in a shallow cup which can be distinctive in identifying the species. [6]
Acorns sown in situ will produce the best trees, in growth rate and deep rooted drought tolerance. The acorns are sown as they ripen. The acorns are sown as they ripen. Acorns lose their viability if they dry out, and so need to be kept in a moist and cool place away from rodents until planting.