If a tree could BE a poem, as indicated by Alfred Joyce Kilmer’s
poem “I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree”, then I submit
that the swamp white oak makes a beautiful poem. With strong, almost muscular
limbs reaching out at ninety-degree angles from the broad trunk, there is
something quintessential in its architecture that lends it an air of majesty.
Native oaks in North America have long served useful purposes
of many different sorts. For example, the acorns feed over one hundred animal
species, and are even edible by humans when treated appropriately to remove the
bitter tannins. Those bitter tannins, also found in the bark of oak trees, have
their own application in tanning leather.
Oaks belong to the genus Quercus,
and include the tree that gives us cork, Quercus
suber. Most of the cork produced in the world comes from trees grown in the
Mediterranean region in the countries of Portugal, Spain, Algeria, and Morocco.
Yamaha uses oak wood in making drums, and drumsticks may also be made of oak,
although they do not absorb vibration as well as those made from hickory or
maple.
There are more than 50 species of oaks that are native to
North America, but some are native to other places, including Europe. William Cowper, English poet of the 1700s,
wrote of the oak: “I might with rev’rence kneel and worship thee, It seems
idolatry with some excuse - When our
forefather Druids in their oaks, Imagin’d sanctity…”, indicating a spiritual
connection to the great and powerful-seeming tree.
According to Diana Wells, author of “Lives of the Trees”, Druids
used oak leaves to make crowns for their sacrificial victims. She goes on to
suggest that the name Druid may have
originated from the Gaelic word for the oak tree, darach. Wells states that oaks were sacred to many gods. She lists
among them, Thor, Jupiter, and El, the Hebrew god.
The white oak, state tree of Illinois, has proved very useful
throughout history. Barrels for wine and whiskey are made from white oak, due
to the closed cellular structure that makes it water- and rot-resistant. Maturing
or fermenting wine in oak adds flavors to the wines such as caramel, vanilla,
and toffee, and sometimes gives wine a silky texture.
Oaks are famously associated with their fruit, the acorn. A
lot of oak species have lobed leaves, but there is a great deal of variability
in leaf shape. Oaks are generally divided into the red oaks and the white oaks,
with leaves of the white oak-types having rounded lobes and those of the red
oak types having pointed lobes. I think the bur oak has the most interesting
acorn, with a burly, fringed cap on a fairly large acorn.
The oak receives a lot of respect for both its usefulness and
symbolically. In 2004, the United States Congress passed legislation naming the
oak as the National Tree. Oak leaves are used in military insignia, including
the awarded oak leaf cluster worn by members of the U.S. Army, Air Force, and
Department of Defense for subsequent awards of a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and
other awards of merit.
Oaks have a long, varied, and interesting history. But poems
are often short and to the point. If a picture paints a thousand words, then may
the image of one magnificent oak pay tribute to them all.
