|
|
|
||||||||
[ Top | Specials | Spruce | Pine | Maple | Oak | Fir | Others | Terms | e-mail | Map | About ]
OAK
Oaks are widely distributed in North America and are divided into two groups: white oaks and red oaks. Most white oaks have leaves with rounded lobes and marginal teeth not tipped with bristles. Their acorns mature in one season, and the shells are hairless inside. Their meat is not bitter. Red oaks have pointed bristle-tipped lobes; bristle-tipped or spiny marginal teeth; or smooth margins, often with a spiny or bristle-tipped or spiny tipped apex. Usually their acorns mature in two years, the shells are hairy inside, and the meat is bitter.
Bur Oak (quercus macrocarpa) has deciduous leaves, 6 to 12
inches long and 3 to 6 inches wide, with 5 to 9 rounded lobes; only central
sinuses extend nearly to mid-rib. The broadly ovoid acorn, 0.8 to 1.5 inches
long, has a fringed cup covering lower half. Twigs often have corky "wings".
The gray bark is in narrow, vertical blocks of scaly plates. Bur Oak prefers
bottomland soils. Grows 70 to 80 feet tall, 2 to 3 feet in diameter.
Height Price 1 year seedlings.......... $1 each 6 feet................... $80 each 12 feet................. $200 each
White Oak (quercus alba)
leaves are deciduous, 5 to 9 inches long and 2 to 4 inches wide, with 7
to 9 rounded lobes divided by narrow, variable sinuses often extending nearly
to the mid-rib. White oaks have oblong acorns, 0.5 to 0.8 of an inch long,
are set in a bowl-like cup covered with warty scales. The gray bark is in
narrow, vertical blocks of scaly plates. Grows 80 to 100 feet tall and 3
to 4 feet in diameter, with a wide spreading crown.
Swamp White Oak (quercus
bicolor) has obovate, deciduous leaves, 5 to 6 inches long and 2 to 4 inches
wide. The margin is irregularly and shallowly lobed or has bluntly pointed
teeth; lower surface is hairy. Long-stemmed (1-4 inches), oval acorns are
usually in pairs. Each acorn is about 1 inch long and has a scaly, somewhat
fringed cup enclosing lower third. Dark-brown to black bark is coarsely
ridged, furrowed, or scaly on upper branches. Swamp White Oak generally
grows in moist to swampy soils; it may be 50 to 70 feet tall and 1 to 3
feet in diameter.
Red
Oak (quercus rubra) has
deciduous leaves, 5 to 8 inches long and 4 to 5 inches wide, with 7 to 11
pointed, toothed lobes separated by regular sinuses that extend halfway
to the mid-rib. The leaves turn red in the fall. The oblong-ovoid acorns
are 0.8 to 1 inch long, with a flat, saucer-like cup at their base. The
dark-brown to black bark is ridged and furrowed. Grows 50 to 70 feet tall
and 1 to 3 feet in diameter, with a rounded crown.