FAMILY: FAGACEAE
ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: bottomland post oak, swamp post oak
LEAVES:deciduous, alternate, simple; blades obovate or narrowly obovate, 3-5” long by 2-2.5” wide, shallowly 2-3 lobed on each side, lobes oblong or rounded, not appearing cruciform, base rounded to acute; blade surface dark green and glossy above with sparse stellate pubescence, grayish and sparsely glandular and appressed-stellate pubescent below
FLOWER: unisexual, plants monoecious; male flowers in catkins, female flowers inconspicuous, solitary or in few flowered spikes
FRUIT: acorn light brown to dark reddish brown, ovoid or oblong, 0.47-0.63” long by 0.3-0.47” wide; cupule cup-shaped and embracing ca. ½ of the acorn, scales grayish and pubescent
TWIGS: slender, grayish, persistently pubescent
BARK: bark grayish brown, scaly
FORM: medium tree to ca. 80’ tall
HABITAT: relatively fertile wet hardwood flatwoods on heavy loamy or clayey soils
WETLAND DESIGNATION: Facultative Wetland (FACW): Usually occurs in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region
RANGE: central Gulf Coastal Plain, rare on the Atlantic Coastal Plain
[US County Range Map] [Flora of North America distribution]
USES: ornamental as a residual tree, not readily available in the nursery trade; wood reportedly of better quality than Quercus stellata, but no other information was discovered
WILDLIFE: hard mast - acorns are consumed by whitetail deer, wild turkey, squirrels; provides cavities for nesting and denning
Best Recognition Features:
- a white oak faithful to poorly drained flatwoods on old landscapes
- leaves smallish, with 4-6 lobes, not appearing cruciform
- leaf bases rounded or short-acute, rather than long-attenuate as in Q. lyrata, which can sometimes be found in close proximity
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