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Northern Red Oak

Quercus rubra

Summary 5

Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak, or champion oak, (syn. Quercus borealis), is an oak in the red oak group (Quercus section Lobatae). It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada.

In many forests, Quercus rubra grows straight and tall, to 90 feet, exceptionally to 140 ft tall, with a trunk of up to 20–40 inches in diameter. Open-grown trees do not get as tall, but can develop a stouter trunk, up to 6+1⁄2 ft in diameter. Northern red oak is easy to recognize by its bark, which features ridges that appear to have shiny stripes down the center. A few other oaks have bark with this kind of appearance in the upper tree, but the northern red oak is the only tree with the striping all the way down the trunk. Leaves are alternate, seven to nine-lobed, oblong-ovate to oblong, five to ten inches long, 4 to 6 inches broad; seven to eleven lobes tapering gradually from broad bases, acute, and terminating with long bristle-pointed teeth; the second pair of lobes from apex are largest; midrib and primary veins conspicuous. Lobes are often less deeply cut than most other oaks of the red oak group. Red oak acorns, unlike the white oak group, display epigeal dormancy and will not germinate without a minimum of three months' exposure to temperatures below 40 °F. They also take two years of growing on the tree before development is completed.

Northern red oak is the most common species of oak in the northeastern US after the closely related pin oak (Q. palustris). The red oak group as a whole are more abundant today than they were when European settlement of North America began as forest clearing and exploitation for lumber much reduced the population of the formerly dominant white oaks Under optimal conditions and full sun, northern red oak is fast growing and a 10-year-old tree can be 16–20 ft tall. Trees may live up to 400 years; a living example of 326 years was noted in 2001

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) alexisberry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
  2. (c) Bruce Kirchoff, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quercus_rubra_(24085920831).jpg
  3. (c) Joe Walewski, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Joe Walewski
  4. (c) Bruce Kirchoff, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quercus_rubra_(23888704340).jpg
  5. Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_rubra

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