Oak Trees

Oak Trees

This is an oak tree. Have you ever seen one? An oak tree has gray or black bark. Its trunk is large. An oak tree has thin branches and green leaves in spring and summer. Oak trees are among the tallest trees around.

How does an oak tree begin its life? An oak tree starts as an acorn. An acorn is a nut with a seed inside. When the seed is planted in the ground, the oak tree starts to grow.

Oak trees start out small. But then they keep growing and growing! Water from the soil and light from the sun help the acorn to sprout and grow. Soon another oak tree stretches to the sky.

Oak trees can live for hundreds of years. How old do you think this tree is now? An oak tree reaches high into the air. Some oak trees are more than one hundred feet tall!

One oak tree in Maryland grew to be ninety-six feet tall. Its trunk was thirty-two feet around! It would fill up your bedroom. That tree lived to be 460 years old. Then in 2002, it fell down in a big storm.