White Oak (RWMWD Plant Guide)

White Oak

Quercus alba

Summary ³

Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the preeminent hardwoods of eastern and central North America. It is a long-lived oak, native to eastern and central North America and found from Minnesota, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia south as far as northern Florida and eastern Texas. Specimens have been documented to be over 450 years old.

Description ⁴

Family:
Fagaceae (Beech)

Height:
60 to 100 feet at maturity

Habit and Lifespan:
Single-stemmed tree; Crown is rounded to oval in shape and often wide, with broadly spreading lower branches and ascending upper branches; DBH up to 5’, typically closer to 3’ at maturity; Slow-growing and long-lived (up to 600 years); Often a dominant canopy tree

Leaves:
Leaves (up to 8” long and 6” wide) are alternately attached and have a typical oak shape - obovate (reaching their broadest around ⅔ of the way up the length of the leaf) and multi-lobed. Leaves have 3-5 pairs of long, even, finger-like lobes, with rounded tips and U-shaped sinuses. Main lobes may be shallowly sub-divided into smaller lobes.

Bark:
Bark is gray with shallow furrows and flat, plate-like ridges. Branch bark is smoother, thinner, and often scaly in appearance. Twigs are yellow-brown to purple-brown with scattered white lenticels.

Flower:
Male flowers grow in groups of yellow-green, dangling, string-like clusters (1-3½” long) called catkins. Female flowers (up to ⅛” across) are greenish red and inconspicuous, growing on stout stalks in clusters of 1-3 from the newest leaf axils.

Fruit:
Fruit (½-1” long) is a brown to greenish-brown, oval-shaped nut (acorn), typically longer than it is wide. The cap, which covers around ¼ of the nut, is tan to gray in color and covered in rough, warty scales.

Bloom time:
March-May

Fall color:
Deep Red to Purple-red

Nicknames:
None

Habitat:
White Oak prefers full to partial sun, and well-drained, loamy soils, but will also tolerate very well-drained soils containing clay, silt, sand, or gravel. It commonly grows in a variety of deciduous woodlands, wooded slopes, bluffs, and savannas, and is a popular species for urban landscape plantings.

Wildlife Benefits:
Acorns are a food source for many species of songbirds and gamebirds, including the Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido, a Minnesota special concern species), as well as a variety of mammals, ranging from bears to mice. Twigs are a food source for deer and rabbits. Foliage is a food source for many species of insects, including caterpillars, beetles, and the Northern Walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) Provides cover and nesting habitat for a variety of wildlife, including birds, bats, squirrels, and raccoons.

Notes:
As a result of its hard, durable wood, White Oak is an important source of timber, a popular species for woodworking, and an excellent source of firewood.
This species is popular in landscape plantings.

References:
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/white-oak
https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/white_oak.html
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-alba/
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/quealb/all.html
https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag_654/volume_2/quercus/alba.htm

Range ⁴

Sources and Credits

(c) Matthew O'Donnell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Matthew O'Donnell
Adapted by Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_alba
(c) Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

iNat Map

Family	Fagaceae
Habit	Tree
Life cycle	perennial
Origin	native
Bloom time	(3) March, (4) April, (5) May
*sites	Lake Phalen, Snail Lake

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White Oak

Summary 3

Description 4

Range 4