Quercus alba
White oak | |
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A large white oak in New Jersey | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fagales |
Family: | Fagaceae |
Genus: | Quercus |
Subgenus: | Quercus subg. Quercus |
Section: | Quercus sect. Quercus
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Species: | Q. alba
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Binomial name | |
Quercus alba | |
Natural range | |
Synonyms[2] | |
List
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Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the preeminent hardwoods of eastern and central North America. It is a long-lived oak, native to eastern and central North America and found from Minnesota, Ontario, Quebec, and southern Maine south as far as northern Florida and eastern Texas.[3] Specimens have been documented to be over 450 years old.[4]
Although called a white oak, it is very unusual to find an individual specimen with white bark; the usual colour is a light gray. The name comes from the colour of the finished wood. In the forest it can reach a magnificent height and in the open it develops into a massive broad-topped tree with large branches striking out at wide angles.[5]
Description
Quercus alba typically reaches heights of 24 to 30 metres (80–100 feet) at maturity, and its canopy can become quite massive as its lower branches are apt to extend far out laterally, parallel to the ground. Trees growing in a forest will become much taller than ones in an open area which develop to be short and massive. The Mingo Oak was the tallest known white oak at over two hundred feet with a trunk height of 44.2 m (145 ft) before it was felled in 1938.[6] It is not unusual for the crown spread of a white oak tree to be as wide as it is tall, but specimens growing at high altitudes may only become small shrubs. The bark is a light ash-gray and peels somewhat from the top, bottom and/or sides.[7] According to Chris Bolgiano in The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal, the largest tree ever cut in West Virginia was a white oak that measured thirteen feet thick at its base.[8]
White oak may live 200 to 300 years, with some even older specimens known. The Wye Oak in Wye Mills, Maryland was estimated to be over 450 years old when it finally fell in a thunderstorm in 2002.[9]
Another noted white oak was the
Sexual maturity begins at around 20 years, but the tree does not produce large crops of acorns until its 50th year and the amount varies from year to year. Acorns deteriorate quickly after ripening, the germination rate being only 10% for six-month-old seeds. As the acorns are prime food for insects and other animals, all may be consumed in years of small crops, leaving none that would become new trees.[13] The acorns are usually sessile, and grow to 15 to 25 mm (1⁄2–1 in) in length, falling in early October.
In spring, the young
Quercus alba is sometimes confused with the
- Detailed description
- Bark: Light gray, varying to dark gray and to white; shallow, fissured and scaly. Branchlets start out as bright green, later turn reddish-green, and finally, light gray. A distinguishing feature of this tree is that a little over halfway up the trunk, the bark tends to form overlapping scales that are easily noticed and aid in identification.[7]
- Wood: Light brown with paler sapwood; strong, tough, heavy, fine-grained and durable. Specific gravity, 0.7470; weight of one cubic foot, 46.35 lbs; weight of one cubic meter 770 kg.[7][14]
- Winter buds: Reddish brown, obtuse, 3 mm (1⁄8 in) long.[7]
- Leaves: Alternate, 13–23 cm (5–9 in) long, 7.5–10 cm (3–4 in) wide. Obovate or oblong, seven to nine-lobed, usually seven-lobed with rounded lobes and rounded sinuses; lobes destitute of bristles; sinuses sometimes deep, sometimes shallow. On young trees the leaves are often repand. They come out of the bud conduplicate, are bright red above, pale below, and covered with white tomentum. The reddish hue fades in a week or less, and they become silvery greenish, white, and shiny; when mature, they are thin, bright yellow-green, shiny or dull above, pale, glaucous or smooth below; the midrib is stout and yellow, primary veins are conspicuous. In late autumn the leaves turn a deep red and drop, or on young trees, remain on the branches throughout winter. Petioles are short, stout, grooved, and flattened. Stipules are linear and caducous.[7]
- Flowers: Appear in May when leaves are one-third grown. Staminate flowers are borne in hairy aments 6.5–7.5 cm (2+1⁄2–3 in) long; the calyx is bright yellow, hairy, and six to eight-lobed with lobes shorter than the stamens; anthers are yellow. Pistillate flowers are borne on short peduncles; involucral scales are hairy and reddish; calyx lobes are acute; stigmas are bright red.[7]
- Acorns: Annual, sessile or stalked; nut ovoid or oblong, round at apex, light brown, shiny, 20–25 mm (3⁄4–1 in) long; cap is cup-shaped, encloses about one-fourth of the nut, tomentose on the outside, tuberculate at base, scales with short obtuse tips becoming smaller and thinner toward the rim.[5] White Oak acorns (referring to Q. alba and all its close relatives) have no epigeal dormancy and germination begins readily without any treatment. In most cases, the oak root sprouts in the fall, with the leaves and stem appearing the next spring. The acorns take only one growing season to develop unlike the red oak group, which require two years for maturation.[7]
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Bark on a large trunk
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New foliage of Quercus alba
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White oak foliage
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Fallen acorns from prolific tree
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Autumn foliage
Chemistry
Distribution
Quercus alba is fairly tolerant of a variety of habitats, and may be found on ridges, in valleys, and in between, in dry and moist habitats, and in moderately acid and alkaline soils. It is mainly a lowland tree, but reaches altitudes of 1,600 m (5,249 ft) in the
Frequent fires in the Central Plains region of the United States prevented oak forests, including Q. alba, from expanding into the Midwest. However, a decrease in the frequency of these natural fires after European settlement caused rapid expansion of oak forests into the Great Plains, negatively affecting the natural prairie vegetation.[19]
Uses
Cultivation
Quercus alba is cultivated as an
Food
The acorns are much less bitter than the acorns of red oaks. They can be eaten by humans but, if bitter, may need to have the tannins leached.[20] They are also a valuable wildlife food, notably for turkeys, wood ducks, pheasants, grackles, jays, nuthatches, thrushes, woodpeckers, rabbits, squirrels, and deer. The white oak is the only known food plant of the Bucculatrix luteella and Bucculatrix ochrisuffusa caterpillars.
The young shoots of many eastern oak species are readily eaten by deer.[21] Dried oak leaves are also occasionally eaten by white-tailed deer in the fall or winter.[22] Rabbits often browse twigs and can girdle stems.[21]
Woodcraft
White oak has
White oak logs feature prominent medullary rays which produce a distinctive, decorative ray and fleck pattern when the wood is quarter sawn. Quarter sawn white oak was a signature wood used in mission style oak furniture by Gustav Stickley in the Craftsman style of the Arts and Crafts movement.[24]
White oak is used extensively in Japanese
Musical instruments
Deering Banjo Company have made several 5-string banjos using white oak - including members of the Vega series, the White Lotus, and the limited edition 40th anniversary model. White Oak has a mellower timbre than more traditionally used maple, and yet still has enough power and projection to not require a metal tone ring.
Oak barrels
Barrels made of American white oak are commonly used for oak aging of wine, in which the wood is noted for imparting strong flavors.[26] Also, by federal regulation, bourbon whiskey must be aged in charred new oak (generally understood to mean specifically American white oak) barrels.[27]
Culture
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2020) |
White oak has served as the official
Being the subject of a legend as old as the colony itself, the
The white oak from the movie The Shawshank Redemption, known as the "Shawshank tree" and the "Tree of Hope", was estimated to be more than 200 years old when it fell. The tree is seen during the last ten minutes of the movie. As the movie gained fame, the tree became popular as well, and used to attract tens of thousands of movie fans and tourists every year. A portion of the tree came down on July 29, 2011, when the tree was split by lightning during a storm. The remaining half of the tree fell during heavy winds just short of five years later, on July 22, 2016.
The Bedford Oak is a 500-year-old white oak tree that sits in the town of Bedford in New York. It is the mascot of the town. It sits at the corner of the Hook Road and the old Bedford Road (now Cantitoe Street). The ground the tree stands on was deeded to the Town of Bedford in 1942 by Harold Whitman in memory of his wife, Georgia Squires Whitman. It has seen Westchester history from Native American settlements to the Revolutionary War to modern times.[31][32]
The video game Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth features a character named Quercus Alba who bears some resemblance to the white oak and plants in general.
See also
- Central and southern Appalachian montane oak forest
- Creek Council Oak Tree, historic landmark representing Tulsa, Oklahoma's founding by the Lochapoka Tribal Town of the Creek Nation
- Door Tree, historic and unique white oak in Hamden, Connecticut (lost to vandalism in 2019)
- Linden Oak, possibly the largest living white oak in the United States
References
- . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ "Quercus alba". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
- ^ "Quercus alba". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
- ^ "Eastern OLDLIST: A database of maximum tree ages for Eastern North America".
- ^ ISBN 0-87338-838-0.
- ^ Encyclopedia, West Virginia. "September 23, 1938: Cutting of the Mingo Oak". www.wvpublic.org. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Nixon, Kevin C. (1997). "Quercus alba". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- ISBN 0-8117-0126-3.
- ^ "An American Champion: Maryland's Wye Oak". Special Collections. National Agricultural Library. June 12, 2002. Archived from the original on June 12, 2002.
- ^ "THSSH Profile – The Historic Basking Ridge Oak Tree". The Historical Society of Somerset Hills. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
- ^ Nutt, Amy Ellis (June 27, 2016). "The oldest white oak tree in the country is dying — and no one knows why". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
- ^ Hutchinson, Dave (April 24, 2017). "N.J. community says goodbye to 600-year-old oak tree". Retrieved October 9, 2018.
- ^ Tirmenstein, D. A. (1991). "Quercus alba". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
- ^ "White Oak • Niche Timbers". Niche Timbers.
- ^ "History of the Great White Bronte Oak". Ontario Urban Forest Council. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ "The Natural Communities of Virginia Classification of Ecological Community Groups (Version 2.3), Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 2010". Archived from the original on January 5, 2011.
- ^ Schafale, M. P. and A. S. Weakley. 1990. Classification of the natural communities of North Carolina: third approximation. North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation.
- S2CID 56082217.
- OCLC 244766414.
- ^ a b Houston, David R. 1971. Noninfectious diseases of oaks. In: Oak symposium: Proceedings; 1971 August 16–20; Morgantown, WV. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 118-123. [9088]
- ^ Van Lear, David H.; Johnson, Von J. 1983. Effects of prescribed burning in the southern Appalachian and upper Piedmont forests: a review. Forestry Bull. No. 36. Clemson, SC: Clemson University, College of Forest and Recreation Resources, Department of Forestry. 8 p. [11755]
- ^ Banks, William (1953-03-01). "Ethnobotany of the Cherokee Indians". Masters Theses.
- OCLC 785943089.
- ^ "Materials on USS Constitution". San Francisco National Maritime Park Association. Retrieved 2011-07-24.
- ^ Sogg, Daniel (July 31, 2001). "White Wines, New Barrels: The taste of new oak gains favor worldwide". Wine Spectator. Archived from the original on 2008-11-22.
- ^ "27 C.F.R. sec 5.22(l)(1)". Ecfr.gpoaccess.gov. Archived from the original on 2012-08-17. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ "Illinois Native State Tree". netstate.com. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
- ^ "54 Connecticut Facts". Meet The USA. 2022.
- ^ "Connecticut State Quarter". theus50.com. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
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: External link in
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- ^ "Bedford Oak - c. 1500". Bedford Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
- ^ "The Martha Stewart Blog : Blog Archive : The mighty Bedford Oak". www.themarthablog.com. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
External links
Taxonomy
- "Quercus alba L.". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). "Quercus alba". Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- "Quercus alba L." Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
Genetics
- "Quercus alba". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
- "Quercus alba L.". IPCN Chromosome Reports. Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved 3 February 2016 – via Tropicos.org.
Distribution
- Distribution Map, Quercus alba at Flora of North America, eFloras.org.
- USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Quercus alba L.". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
Media
- Vanderbilt University: Quercus alba images Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
- Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden: Quercus alba L. images
Further reading
- Chattooga Conservancy. The Ecology of the White Oak
- Rogers, Robert (1990). "Quercus alba". In Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H. (eds.). Hardwoods. Silvics of North America. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: United States Forest Service (USFS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – via Southern Research Station.