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Falling from tree - What is this?

sonia35515sonia35515 Posts: 20
in Plants
Hi Forumites, can anyone tell me what these are please? We have had tons of these falling to the ground from our neighbours tree. TIA
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  • sonia35515sonia35515 Posts: 20

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Also known as beech mast. 
    Back in the day country folk would turn their pigs into the woodlands to feed on oak and beech mast to fatten them up to produce hood hams for  the winter.  This was called ‘pannage’. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    When I saw the question in the title I had a vision of a photograph of a child laying prostrate on the ground having fallen from a great height.  Probably due to that happening to me many years ago - I was the child not the photographer. :D  Weird what flashes through your mind at times.
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    The next stage will be lots of beech seedlings in Spring so you may need to do a bit of weeding then.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    ‘Hood hams’ ?!?! 🙄 flippin autocorrect … ‘Good hams, not hams for Robin Hood … (although he probably had a few each year) 😉 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    @KT53 - I was thinking the same thing  ;)
    Always tons of them lying on footpaths round here at this time of year. They can be lethal when it's damp! The squirrels usually snaffle loads of them. 

    As @steephill says - look out for any that the flying rats miss, as they'll appear readily in your garden @sonia35515 :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    The kernels are actually edible. They just take more calories getting them out than you get from eating them.
    Do pigeons eat them as well as the tree rats?
  • MarranMarran Posts: 195
    Palustris said:
    The kernels are actually edible. They just take more calories getting them out than you get from eating them.
    Do pigeons eat them as well as the tree rats?

    I remember eating those, as a child, on the way to school!
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Our garden would soon return to Beech forest without intervention, as we have four mature Beech trees on our boundaries.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
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