white oak (Vascular Plants of Lost Cove Farm)

white oak

Quercus alba

Summary ⁴

Quercus alba, the white oak, is one of the pre-eminent hardwoods of eastern North America. It is a long-lived oak of the family Fagaceae, native to eastern North America and found from southern Quebec west to eastern Minnesota and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Specimens have been documented to be over 450 years old.

Associated forest cover ⁵

White oak grows in association with many other trees, the more important of which are other upland oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.), yellowpoplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), American basswood (Tilia americana), white ash (Fraxinus americana), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), loblolly pine (P.taeda), eastern white pine (P. strobus), and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). The most frequent associates are other oaks and the hickories.

White oak is a major component of three forest cover types (10): White Oak-Black Oak-Northern Red Oak (Society of American Foresters Type 52), White Oak (Type 53), and Yellow-Poplar-White Oak-Northern Red Oak (Type 59). It is a minor component of the following 28 other forest types:

Northern Forest Region
14 Northern Pin Oak
19 Grey Birch-Red Maple
21 Eastern White Pine 22 White Pine-Hemlock
23 Eastern Hemlock
26 Sugar Maple-Basswood
27 Sugar Maple
51 White Pine-Chestnut Oak
60 Beech-Sugar Maple

Central Forest Region
40 Post Oak-Blackjack Oak
42 Bur Oak
43 Bear Oak
44 Chestnut Oak
45 Pitch Pine
46 Eastern Redcedar
55 Northern Red Oak
57 Yellow-Poplar
58 Yellow-Poplar-Eastern Hemlock
61 River Birch-Sycamore
110 Black Oak

Southern Forest Region
75 Shortleaf Pine
76 Shortleaf Pine-Oak
78 Virginia Pine-Oak
79 Virginia Pine
80 Loblolly Pine-Shortleaf Pine
81 Loblolly Pine
82 Loblolly Pine-Hardwood
91 Swamp Chestnut Oak-Cherrybark Oak

Comments ⁶

Considerable variation in depth of lobing occurs in the leaves of Quercus alba (M. J. Baranski 1975; J. W. Hardin 1975); the species is easily distinguished from others, however, by the light gray-green, glabrous mature leaves and cuneate leaf bases.

In the past Quercus alba was considered to be the source of the finest and most durable oak lumber in America for furniture and shipbuilding. Now it has been replaced almost entirely in commerce by various species of eastern red oak (e.g., Q . rubra , Q . velutina , and Q . falcata ) that are more common and have faster growth and greater yields. These red oaks also lack tyloses and therefore are more suited to pressure treating with preservatives, even though they are less decay-resistant without treatment.

Medicinally, Quercus alba was used by Native Americans to treat diarrhea, indigestion, chronic dysentery, mouth sores, chapped skin, asthma, milky urine, rheumatism, coughs, sore throat, consumption, bleeding piles, and muscle aches, as an antiseptic, and emetic, and a wash for chills and fevers, to bring up phlegm, as a witchcraft medicine, and as a psychological aid (D. E. Moerman 1986).

Numerous hybrids between Quercus alba and other species of white oak have been reported, and some have been named. J. W. Hardin (1975) reviewed the hybrids of Quercus alba . Nothospecies names based on putative hybrids involving Q . alba include: Q . × beadlei Trelease (= Q . alba × prinus ), Q . × bebbiana Schneider (= Q . alba × macrocarpa ), Q . × bimundorum E. J. Palmer (= Q . alba × robur ), Q . × deami Trelease (= Q . alba × muhlenbergii ), Q . × faxoni Trelease (= Q . alba × prinoides ), Q . × jackiana Schneider (= Q . alba × bicolor ), and Q . × saulei Schneider (= Q . alba × montana ).

Damaging agents ⁷

Several insects attack white oak trees (15,28,43). They are usually not important but may become epidemic and kill weakened trees. Economically, the most important are the wood borers. These may damage the wood of standing trees and cause log and lumber defects.

White oak is attacked by several leaf eaters including the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), orange-striped oakworm (Anisota senatoria), variable oakleaf caterpillar (Heterocampa manteo), several oak leaf tiers (Psilocorsis spp.), and walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata). Frequently trees are killed from an interaction of damaging agents such as a defoliator followed by invasion of a shoestring fungus and the twolined chestnut borer (Agrilus bilineatus).

White oak also hosts various scale insects, gall-forming insects, and twig pruners, but most of these are of minor importance. White oak acorns are commonly attacked by insects, in some cases affecting half the total acorn crop. Weevils of the genera Curculio and Conotrachelus cause most acorn damage. Light acorn crops usually are more heavily infested than heavy ones. Two moths damage acorns, the filbertworm (Melissopus latiferreanus) and Valentinia glandulella. The Cynipid wasps cause galls to develop in the acorn or on the cup.

The oak timberworm (Arrhenodes minutus) frequently damages white oak, making it unfit for tight cooperage. Attacks by this insect usually occur at wounds made by logging, lightning, and wind. Golden oak scale (Asterolecanium variolosum) can seriously damage and even kill the tree. It is especially damaging when accompanied by drought.

Decay of heartwood resulting from fire scars causes the most serious white oak losses. The amount of decay depends on the size of the wound, the species of fungi, and the length of time since wounding. In general, rot spreads in the stem if the basal sear is more than 0.3 m (1 ft) in d.b.h. The larger the wound, the faster the rot (28).

Oak wilt, a vascular disease caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fagacearum, is potentially the most destructive disease of both the red and white oaks. It is widely distributed throughout the Central States. White oak is less susceptible to oak wilt than the red oak species, and may lose only a limb at a time, or may sustain infection by the pathogen without ever showing symptoms (21).

Several other diseases of white oak seldom kill or cause much loss. Perennial cankers induced by bark diseases Strumella coryneoides and Nectria galligena are responsible for most of the losses in white oak particularly where ice and snow accumulation is common. Damage results from a weakening of the bole at the cankers with subsequent wind breakage. The trunk can become wholly or partially unmerchantable.

A root rot caused by the fungus Armillaria mellea attacks weakened trees. Root rot caused by Armillaria tabescens is similar and attacks oaks in the South. White root rot caused by Inonotus dryadeus is common on weak and suppressed trees.

The fungus Gnomonia veneta causes irregular brown areas on leaves and shoots. It may cause loss of some leaves and rarely, complete defoliation.

Oak leaf blister, caused by Taphrina caerulescens, is prevalent on eastern oaks, producing blisterlike swellings on the foliage.

White oak is moderately resistant to ice breakage, sensitive to flooding, and resistant to salt spray and brief salt-water submergence (21,28). It is sensitive to fire injury but less so than scarlet oak. Coal smoke and the resulting fly ash deposit on the soil surface substantially reduce white oak productivity (2,38).

Sources and Credits

(c) JanetandPhil, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/30979614@N07/4154729573
(c) Dendroica cerulea, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dendroica/6270094899/
(c) Bob Gutowski, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/versicolor/8758698992/
Adapted by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_alba
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779122
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19824548
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779130

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white oak

Summary 4

Associated forest cover 5

Comments 6

Damaging agents 7