TFN Juniors Fall Nature Club – Acorn Dissection

Hi Junior Naturalists!

Thanks to everyone who joined the PollinateTO planting event, and to everyone who contributed photos to this week’s slide show. So many great sightings and nature activities!

What’s inside an acorn?

The white meaty part of the acorn are the embryonic leaves which will never turn green and never appear above ground. Their job is to store food for the baby oak that will grow out of this acorn. The root of the baby oak is at the pointy tip of the acorn. What will be the shoot looks up towards the cap.

Who made this perfectly round hole? Watch this cool National Geographic video to find out!

The moth larva (shown on the right) has used the hole to get inside and make the acorn its home.

Look forward to seeing you all next week. Bring journals, pencils and pencil crayons and we’ll make a journal entry about the intriguing and super cute acorn weevil.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.