How did the acorn get there? My guess is that a squirrel stashed the acorn there and it sprouted, and now it is in an uneasy relationship with the Silver Birch.
I wonder what will happen if no one touches it? It is in a park here in Cambridge, so one of the arborists may well nip out the young sapling. Or maybe not.
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Good spotting that! I am sure if they have landscapers, it will be chopped off!
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The tree is on my route if I am going to that part of town, so I shall keep an eye on developments.
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Well (and this presupposes no human intervention) Birch are actually a fast-growing pioneer species in the story of forest development so it would normally provide shade and protection for the slower growing (and longer-lived) species like Oak… Plus honestly David, judging by the bark and girth of its trunk, this one’s getting a little long-in-the-tooth anyway; )
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There has been a sea change in the attitudes of municipal authorities. They see the value in playing along with nature rather than dominating it, so now in this park there are several areas left to grow wild, and sewn with wild flowers. So they may let the oak just do whatever it wants.
I read somewhere that beech woods and oak woods (at least in the UK) swing back and forth, one changing slowly into the other and then back again over many hundreds of years. The beech smother out the oak sprouts, then grow to maturity and fall, and the oak then come back – and so it goes.
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I love balance: )
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