Plant: Swamp White Oak Tree

Plant description

Swamp white oak is a medium sized native deciduous tree 50 to 60 feet tall and wide, pyramidal when young and opening to a rounded spreading crown. Its two toned foliage is glossy dark green above and silvery white beneath, turning brown, gold and red in fall, and the peeling branch bark adds winter interest. Acorns come in good crops every three to five years and feed wildlife. It prefers moist acidic soils in wet lowlands and floodplains but adapts to drier sites, tolerates black walnut, deer, drought, poor soil and wet soil, and can live up to 300 years. Use it as a shade tree or specimen in lawns, meadows and rain gardens. Leaves and acorns cause stomach upset if eaten.

Foliage

Simple alternate leaves 3 to 7 inches long and 1.25 to 4 inches wide, glossy dark green above and silvery white beneath, with lobed and dentate margins, turning brown, gold and red in fall.

Bark & stems

Thick bark divided by furrows and ridges, with peeling bark on the branches, stout brown to grey twigs marked by white lenticels and yellow orange inner bark.

Native range

Southeast Canada to the northern central and eastern United States

Plant details