Thought you all would enjoy this article. 

A Rain of Acorns From Mighty Oaks; By Scott Aker Special to The Washington Post Thursday, November 21, 2002; Page H07 Q I live in the Mount Vernon area, which is well provided with a variety of oaks. I noticed this fall’s super crop of acorns has been produced only by white oaks and overcup oaks, not by red, willow or pin oaks. Do you know the reason for this mystery? AAs you note, some oaks have been working overtime lately. Other kinds of trees go on this binge too, but their seeds are not as noticeable. This process is called masting, and is the periodic production of large numbers of seeds by forest trees. We might think that this is caused by some external impetus, the drought for example, but the phenomenon is caused by factors internal to the trees. Acorns contain a large supply of starch, some protein and small amounts of oils that are very costly (in terms of energy) for the trees to produce. After masting, trees must spend three or four years regenerating carbohydrate stores before they can mast again. The generous food stores in the acorns are necessary for the seedlings to establish themselves, but they also represent a banquet of staggering proportions for wildlife that feed on them, including deer, squirrels and white-footed mice. If you have noticed that the squirrels in your neighborhood look a bit plumper than they have been in the past few years, you are probably not mistaken. Ecologically, this is also the reason oaks and other trees with large, tasty seeds mast. They produce so many seeds that some are likely to survive even after the mammals and insects have feasted. This is important when you consider that a single acorn only has a 1-in-10,000 chance of growing into a tree. If the parent trees produced consistent but smaller crops every year, the odds would be even slimmer. Not all species of oaks mast at the same time, as you have indicated. It is interesting to note that a given species tends to mast throughout its entire range, which is an indication that the process is controlled by genetics and not by environment...Pike..