Quercus rubra
Red Oak
Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania, west to Minnesota and Iowa
In youth is has a rounded habit and remains rounded in old age with a symmetrical silohouette. Fast growth rate, up to 2 feet per year.
Sandy loam, acid soils in full sun.
The acorns attract all kinds of wildlife. Red oak is a valuable, fast growing oak for lawns, parks and golf courses. It has use as a street tree. It is native to the northeastern United States, including Delaware. Easy to transplant.
Alternate, simple, 4 to 8 inch long, 7-11 pointed lobes with shallow sinuses compared to Q. palustris and Q. coccinea. Emerge reddish, become dark-green in summer, turn variable reds in fall.
Buds are chestnut-brown, about .33 inches, sharply pointed.
Steel-gray with ridges and furrows, often mingled with flattened gray areas on the larger branches and main trunk.
Insignificant flowers in separate male and female catkins appear in spring.
Medium brown with gray streaks on the cap. Nut (acorn) .75 to 1 inch long with involucre (cup) covering about one quarter of nut.
Seed, hybridizes freely.
'Aurea' - Clear to golden yellow leaves.