Website Editor's blog

Andrew Hipp talked to the legendary Joey Santore (the naturalist and communicator behind the “Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t” YouTube channel and Instagram account) about genus Quercus. Joey is extremely knowledgeable, but he admits he had his mind blown by the things he learned during the interview. You probably will too.

Aljos Farjon FLS reports on the biodiversity of High Park, a wild section of Blenheim Park in Oxfordshire, England.

IOS member David Cranwell shared with us a bulletin about his work growing Quercus leucotrichophora in New Zealand. This was presented at the New Zealand Farm Forestry Conference held in Napier, Hawke's Bay, April 9–13, 2024. David has been growing Q. leucotrichophora, also known as Himalayan oak or banj oak, in New Zealand since the late 1990s, initially from acorns imported from India.

IOS member Christy Powell, Horticulture Manager at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, shared an inspiring news story.

Beech Leaf Disease is attacking Fagus species in North America.

The IOS recently received an inquiry from Jim Conrad about a strange phenomenon he observed on a twig of a Quercus ×dysophylla in the Eastern Sierra Madre in Mexico, where what appeared to be multiple styles emerged from a bud. It turns out they may be fungal reproductive bodies.

Maricela Rodríguez interviewed staff and owners at key oak collections in the UK. 

Angela Moskow shared some disturbing accounts of oak poisonings.

An article by Tim Boland and Matt Lobdell on why oaks are "ecological warhorses"