willow oak
Quercus phellos L.
  • FAMILY: FAGACEAE
  • ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: pin oak
  • LEAVES: tardily deciduous, alternate, simple, 2-5” long x 0.5-1.0” wide; blades narrowly lanceolate or elliptic, willow-like
  • FLOWER: unisexual, plants monoecious; male flowers in catkins, female flowers inconspicuous, solitary or in few flowered spikes
  • FRUIT: acorn, ovoid to subglobose, to less than 0.5” long, surface grayish brown; cupule saucer-shaped, shallow, embracing ca. 1/4 of the acorn
  • TWIGS: slender, reddish brown and pubescent when young, becoming gray and glabrous
  • BARK: bark of younger trees gray and smoothish, that of larger trees dark gray and shallowly fissured
  • FORM: medium to large tree, 80-130’ tall and 3-6’ dbh
  • HABITAT: bottomland hardwood forest (along large and small rivers and streams), wet hardwood flatwoods; on flatwoods, sometimes intermixed with or growing near loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) or spruce pine (P. glabra; Florida Parishes)
  • WETLAND DESIGNATION: Facultative Wetland (FACW): Usually occurs in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region
  • RANGE: southeastern US [USGS Range Map]
  • USES: wood used for structural lumber and pulp; common ornamental, readily available in nursery trade
  • WILDLIFE: important hard mast for birds, including waterfowl and wild turkey, and whitetail deer and squirrels; herbage browsed by whitetail deer
  • Best Recognition Features:
    1. red oak with willow-like leaves
    2. small acorn with shallow cupule