Southern Red Oak, Swamp Red Oak, Spanish Oak

I've seen this species wild in three places. First in Nottingham Park in far southern Chester County in se PA in the serpentine barrens o...Read Moref shallow, acid, dry soil. Secondly, there are a few excellent specimens in Lloyd Park in Downingtown in se PA in good quality clay soil that is slightly acid. The third place is in southern Delaware in sandy soil and in dunes around Rehoboth Beach. Handsome shade tree that develops a taproot, so it is not usually grown by nurseries, unless native plant ones that grow it in containers, not B&B. Mossy Oak Nursery and TN Nursery sell saplings. Its small acorns are eaten by a good number of birds and mammals. It lives about 150 years and grows about 1 foot/year. This and other oaks that are not the popular nursery oaks as Pin, Northern Red, and Swamp White, should be grown and planted more.

These are very uncommon in the New Orleans area for some reason; the only ones I know of are some ~20' tall ones planted in front of the ...Read MoreLowe's in Metairie. There's also a stunningly huge old one growing right behind the levee in Wallace, LA, near the Veterans Bridge. This one is inundated with several feet of standing water every spring (as snow from 31 northern states melts and enters the Mississippi River) for weeks to months at a time. So I'm not sure why people say it thrives only in dry upland soils. This one resembles a Southern Live Oak in its massive branching structure. It does not appear to have any sort of rot or other water-related illnesses. I'd love to buy one of these trees, but no one down here even sells them. My only "complaint" about Q. falcata would be that the dead leaves remain on the tree throughout winter. (I know there's a botanical word for this that starts with "t," but it escapes me right now...)

Often grows with shortleaf pine in the Tennessee Valley. Very large specimens are indeed impressive.

Love this tree. Have a large double-trunked specimen in my yard. It is actually 2 trees that have merged together over the years. The ...Read Morelarger trunk is probably 75-100 years old and the smaller trunk is proabably 40-60 years old