Oaks of FloridaTop

Swamp Chestnut Oak

Overcup Oak

Water Oak

Shumard Oak

Willow Oak

 

 

 

Swamp Chestnut Oak

Also known as basket oak or cow oak, this 60 to 80-foot-tall tree, the swamp chestnut oak is found on moist, periodically flooded, bottomland soils from southern New Jersey to northern Florida. Its uses include traditional farming tools, baskets, posts, and barrels. Margins of the unlobed deciduous leaves have coarse, wavy teeth. The leaf is 5- to -8 inches long and 3- to- 4 inches wide; dark lustrous green on top, silvery pubescent below. Solitary or paired lustrous brown acorns are 1- to -1 ½ inches long with a bowl shaped cup of wedgeshaped scales covering a third of its length. Stout, red-brown twigs mature to a brownish gray, while bark of the mature tree is a furrowed, scaly gray outside and red inside. Top

 


Overcup Oak

As its name implies, the scales of the cap, or cup, almost entirely enclose the ½-to-l-inch round fruit. Overcup oaks may, in rare instances, achieve heights of 100 feet, but are generally shorter. Trees are frequently twisted and are of little economic value, but provide valuable wildlife habitat in the bottormlands where they abound. They may be found with willows, swamp-chestnut oaks and elms along the coastal plain from New Jersey to Florida and Texas. Their buttressed bases are an adaptation to the wet soils of the bottomlands. Their gray-brown bark is irregularly ridged or flattened and may appear to spiral around the trunk. The deciduous leaves are 6-to-10-inches long and 1-to-4-inches wide with 5-to-9 lobes. The tip may be pointed or round, but the base is always wedge shaped. One inch long petioles are slender and support the dark green leaves with pale-pubescent or nearly smooth undersides. Acorns, in pairs or singly, are closely attached to twigs. Top

 


Water Oak

The leaves of the tall, slender water oak are semi-persistent, falling a few at a time throughout the winter. This persistence may give the appearance of an evergreen habit, but leaves do not persist into the second growing season. Water oaks are extremely variable in shape and size, especially on sprout growth. Even on mature branches, shape varies widely. They are generally shaped like a spatula, narrow at the base and broadly rounded near the tip. Margins may be entire, 3-lobed near the tip or variously lobed on both margins. Both surfaces of the leaf are green and smooth except for infrequent axillary hairs below. The lower surface is a slightly lighter green. Even large water oaks (50-to-70 feet in height is average) retain relatively smooth bark. It is smooth and brown in youth, grading to gray-brown with irregular furrows. Diameters of 2-to-3 feet are common for mature trees. Acorns are solitary or occasionally in pairs. The light-brown-to-nearly-black nuts are oval to hemispherical in shape and may be pubescent near the tip. They are about ½-inch long with a pubescent, saucer-shaped reddish-brown cup.This wide-spread species may be found in mixed pine-hardwood forests, along roadsides, in flatwoods, bottomlands or urban openings. Its range extends along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to East Texas and south into central Florida. Top

 


Shumard Oak

From Maryland on the East Coast to Iowa and Texas in the West, the Shumard oak ranges as far south as central Florida. It is a large, attractive tree, attaining height of 90-to-125 feet on ideal sites in deep, rich bottomlands along streams and riverbanks. Leaves of the Shumard are alternate, simple and deciduous in habit; obovate in shape. They are 6 - to- 8 inches long and 4- to -5-inches wide, with a wedgeshaped or flattened base. Six -to -11 bristle-tipped lobes on each leaf are dark green above and paler green below with tufts of hairs where veins and mid-ribs meet. Sinuses are rounded and generally deep. This commonly planted landscape tree has moderately stout, hairless, gray-brown twigs. Mature bark is thick with whitish, scaly ridges separated by dark fissures. The foliage of Shumard oaks turns a deep crimson red in autumn; one reason it is valued as an ornamental. Its acorns are oblong to ovoid, up to 1 ¼ inch in length and 1-inch in diameter. The cap is saucer shaped with somewhat pubescent scales. Top

 


Willow Oak

This frequently planted ornamental tree reaches 80-to-130 feet in height with trunk diameters of 3-to-6 feet. Grown in the open, the trunk is short with a dense, broad oblong or oval crown covered with deciduous leaves with bristle-tips. In forests, the tree tends toward a longer trunk with a spherical crown. Preferred sites are rich, moist bottomlands along swamps and streams. This oak is rare on drier sites.Leaves are 2-to-5 inches in length and ½-to-1 inch in width and exhibit wavy or irregularly lobed margins on sprout growth. Like the willow this oak is named for, its leaves are generally lanceolate, though some specimens may be oblong. Most are broadest near the middle of the leaf. The upper surface is light green, smooth and shiny with raised veins. The lower surface is paler and may have whitish hairs along the midrib. The thin petioles are 1/4-inch long. Acorns may be solitary or in pairs, hemispherical and 1/3-to-1/2-inch long. The nut is yellowish brown and bluntly pointed. The cup is greenish-brown, thin and saucer-shaped, enclosing only the base of the nut. Top

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