Oaks of FloridaTop
Also known as basket oak or cow oak, this 60 to 80-foot-tall tree,
the swamp chestnut oak is found on moist, periodically flooded, bottomland soils from
southern New Jersey to northern Florida. Its uses include traditional farming tools,
baskets, posts, and barrels. Margins of the unlobed deciduous leaves have coarse, wavy
teeth. The leaf is 5- to -8 inches long and 3- to- 4 inches wide; dark lustrous green on
top, silvery pubescent below. Solitary or paired lustrous brown acorns are 1- to -1
½ inches long with a bowl shaped cup of wedgeshaped scales covering a third of
its length. Stout, red-brown twigs mature to a brownish gray, while bark of the mature
tree is a furrowed, scaly gray outside and red inside. Top
As its name implies, the scales of the cap, or cup, almost entirely
enclose the ½-to-l-inch round fruit. Overcup oaks may, in rare instances,
achieve heights of 100 feet, but are generally shorter. Trees are frequently twisted and
are of little economic value, but provide valuable wildlife habitat in the bottormlands
where they abound. They may be found with willows, swamp-chestnut oaks and elms along the
coastal plain from New Jersey to Florida and Texas. Their buttressed bases are an
adaptation to the wet soils of the bottomlands. Their gray-brown bark is irregularly
ridged or flattened and may appear to spiral around the trunk. The deciduous leaves are
6-to-10-inches long and 1-to-4-inches wide with 5-to-9 lobes. The tip may be pointed or
round, but the base is always wedge shaped. One inch long petioles are slender and support
the dark green leaves with pale-pubescent or nearly smooth undersides. Acorns, in pairs or
singly, are closely attached to twigs. Top
The leaves of the tall, slender water oak are semi-persistent,
falling a few at a time throughout the winter. This persistence may give the appearance of
an evergreen habit, but leaves do not persist into the second growing season. Water oaks
are extremely variable in shape and size, especially on sprout growth. Even on mature
branches, shape varies widely. They are generally shaped like a spatula, narrow at the
base and broadly rounded near the tip. Margins may be entire, 3-lobed near the tip or
variously lobed on both margins. Both surfaces of the leaf are green and smooth except for
infrequent axillary hairs below. The lower surface is a slightly lighter green. Even large
water oaks (50-to-70 feet in height is average) retain relatively smooth bark. It is
smooth and brown in youth, grading to gray-brown with irregular furrows. Diameters of
2-to-3 feet are common for mature trees. Acorns are solitary or occasionally in pairs. The
light-brown-to-nearly-black nuts are oval to hemispherical in shape and may be pubescent
near the tip. They are about ½-inch long with a pubescent, saucer-shaped
reddish-brown cup.This wide-spread species may be found in mixed pine-hardwood forests,
along roadsides, in flatwoods, bottomlands or urban openings. Its range extends along the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts to East Texas and south into central Florida. Top
From Maryland on the East Coast to Iowa and Texas in the West, the
Shumard oak ranges as far south as central Florida. It is a large, attractive tree,
attaining height of 90-to-125 feet on ideal sites in deep, rich bottomlands along streams
and riverbanks. Leaves of the Shumard are alternate, simple and deciduous in habit;
obovate in shape. They are 6 - to- 8 inches long and 4- to -5-inches wide, with a
wedgeshaped or flattened base. Six -to -11 bristle-tipped lobes on each leaf are dark
green above and paler green below with tufts of hairs where veins and mid-ribs meet.
Sinuses are rounded and generally deep. This commonly planted landscape tree has
moderately stout, hairless, gray-brown twigs. Mature bark is thick with whitish, scaly
ridges separated by dark fissures. The foliage of Shumard oaks turns a deep crimson red in
autumn; one reason it is valued as an ornamental. Its acorns are oblong to ovoid, up to 1
¼ inch in length and 1-inch in diameter. The cap is saucer shaped with somewhat
pubescent scales. Top
This frequently planted ornamental tree reaches 80-to-130 feet in
height with trunk diameters of 3-to-6 feet. Grown in the open, the trunk is short with a
dense, broad oblong or oval crown covered with deciduous leaves with bristle-tips. In
forests, the tree tends toward a longer trunk with a spherical crown. Preferred sites are
rich, moist bottomlands along swamps and streams. This oak is rare on drier sites.Leaves
are 2-to-5 inches in length and ½-to-1 inch in width and exhibit wavy or
irregularly lobed margins on sprout growth. Like the willow this oak is named for, its
leaves are generally lanceolate, though some specimens may be oblong. Most are broadest
near the middle of the leaf. The upper surface is light green, smooth and shiny with
raised veins. The lower surface is paler and may have whitish hairs along the midrib. The
thin petioles are 1/4-inch long. Acorns may be solitary or in pairs, hemispherical and
1/3-to-1/2-inch long. The nut is yellowish brown and bluntly pointed. The cup is
greenish-brown, thin and saucer-shaped, enclosing only the base of the nut. Top