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Quercus alba

White Oak

Pronunciation
KWER-kus AL-ba
Pronunciation Audio
Family
Genus
Nativity

Eastern to midwestern United States

Growth Habit

Pyramidal in youth, becoming rounded with horizontal branches. Slow to medium growth rate, slower with great age.

Hardiness
3
Culture

Full sun in deep, moist, rich, well-drained acid soils.

Facultative Status
Facultative Upland
Landscape Use

Not commonly planted as a landscape tree; usually taprooted and is therefore difficult to transplant. Mildly sensitive to environmental changes during site development.

Foliage

Lustrous dark green in summer, rounded, numerous, finger-like lobes with sinuses generally extending halfway to leaf axil. Alternate, simple, 4 to 9 inches long, 5 to 9 rounded, entire lobes.

Buds

Buds are red-brown to brown, .125 to .25 inches long.

Bark

Light-gray in color, ridged and furrowed.

Flower

Gray-green monoecious, male in catkins, female in solitary to many-flowered spikes in leaf axils.

Fruit

Light chestnut brown nut (acorn) .5 to 1 inch long with involucre (cup) only covering one quarter of nut.

Propagation

Seed.

Pests
Numerous, but none serious.
Cultivars

'Southern Cross' - Unique hybrid, back-cross of (Q. alba x Q. michauxii) x Q. michauxii).

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