White Oak (Quercus alba)

Also known as Northern White Oak, Eastern White Oak, Stave Oak, Ridge White Oak, Forked-leaf White Oak

The white oak is a large, strong, imposing specimen. It has a short stocky trunk with massive horizontial limbs. The wide spreading branches form an upright, broad-rounded crown. Height of 50–80′ and a spread of 50–80′ at maturity. The leaves are dark green to slightly blue-green in summer, brown and wine-red to orange-red in the fall. The fall foliage is showy. Dried leaves remain into winter.

Oaks are wind pollinated. Acorns are produced generally when the trees are between 50-100 years old. Open-grown trees may produce acorns are early as 20 years. Good acorn crops are irregular and occur only every 4-10 years.

The white oak prefers full sun, but has a moderate tolerance to partial shade. It is more shade tolerant in youth, and less tolerant as the tree grows larger. It can adapt to a variety of soil textures, but prefers deep, moist, well-drained sites. Older trees are very sensitive to construction disturbances. It is intolerant of alkaline, shallow or abused urban soils. It can, however, tolerate moderate drought and occasional wet soil.

12-18″ bare root seedling

Photo Credit: Msact at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons