Common Name: White oak, stave oak
Family: Fagaceae
DECIDUOUS
UConn campus, West Hartford, CT
Plant is Native to: Minnesota to Maine, south to Florida and Texas
Plant Height at maturity: 60 to 80 feet, and as wide or wider; trunk diameter up to 38 to 50 inches. In the forest, can reach up to 100 feet tall, with oval shape and upright form.
Plant Habit and Form: Stately deciduous tree, with a rounded to wide-spreading irregular crown. Pyramidal when young. Branching is wide-spreading and irregular.
Foliage: Leaves are simple, alternately arranged on stem. 5 to 6 inches long, with rounded tip and wedge-shaped base. Young leaves are bright green on top, whitish underside; mature leaves are blue-green; fall color is purplish-red to violet purple.
UConn Campus, West Hartford, CT
Bark: whitish, or light gray; varies from scaly to irregularly platy, or ridged and furrowed. Twig is often gray-red, sometimes almost purple, shiny, and hairless. Multiple terminal buds, are rounded, red-brown and hairless.
UConn Campus, West Hartford, CT
Flower: Monoecious. Male flower is yellow-green catkins, 2 to 4 inches long; female flower is reddish, appear as single spikes with the leaves. May flowering. Messy.
Fruit/Seed: The acorn is oval shaped, with the bumpy cap covering about 1/4 of the body. The cap drops off at maturity. About 120 acorns to a pound. Does not need a dormancy period to germinate.
Growing Requirements: Grows best on moist, well-drained, coarse, slightly acidic soil, but will tolerate many soil types, including heavy soils. Grows well on north or east facing slopes. Zone 4. Slow growing.
Problems and Drawbacks: Very sensitive to root disturbances from compaction, grading or drainage changes. Susceptible to insect damage from leaf eaters (especially gypsy moth), leaftiers, gall-forming insects, but the fortunately the problem is usually not serious. Other problems include cankers from bark diseases such as nectria galligena, root rot, brown patches on leaves and shoots, and oak blisters. Has good resistance to oak wilt. Tap root makes transplanting difficult.
Special Uses: Fairly tolerant of shade, so makes a good understory tree until it grows large. A long-lived tree. Provides food for wildlife (squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays, crows, woodpeckers, deer, turkey, quail, mice, ducks and raccoons). Good ornamental tree due to fall color, and large rounded shape. One of the most attractive oaks.
ID Tips/Remarks: Leaves have rounded lobes. Fall color is purplish-red to purple-violet. Oval, elongated acorn shape. Whitish or ash gray flaky bark.
Bibliography:
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/q/quealb/quealb1.html
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=35
No comments:
Post a Comment