Botanical name

Quercus rubra

Common name(s)

Northern red oak

Family

Fagaceae

Native range

Eastern North America

Growth Height

50 to 75 feet

Bloom time

May

Historical and interesting facts

Northern red oak is a valuable timber tree, certainly the most valuable of the red oaks. It is valued both for its generally excellent growth form and for the strength, durability, and attractive grain of the wood. It takes stain and polish well, making it a desirable high-end wood, used for fine furniture, cabinetry, flooring, molding, and cooperage. Lower-end uses include construction, mine props, and railroad ties. The wood burns hot and makes good fuelwood. Because it is prone to insect attack and decay, the wood is not favored for exterior work in the building trade.

Oak acorns of course are important wildlife food and exhibit much higher production, masting, every few years. Northern red oak typically masts every two to five years. Some individual trees are consistently better acorn producers than others. Most acorns are consumed by a variety of animals, from bears and raccoons to rodents, game birds to jays. In almost all situations, though, the northern red oaks we see in the second-growth forests of our region did not originate from acorns, but rather from sprouts.

Northern red oak very valuable as an ornamental street and park tree. Easier to transplant than most other oaks (the shallower root system), it does reasonably well in urban conditions. Crown form is rounded and spreading; fall color varies with the cultivar- sometimes red but often nothing special. The tree is hardy in the north to Zone 4 (or colder in special cases). As a cultivated tree, it tolerates soils from acidic to alkaline, and performs well on all but very wet or very dry soils. The tree is reasonably disease and insect resistant, although the gypsy moth can do extensive damage in the northeast and oak-wilt disease has done much damage to the species in the Upper Midwest.

These fact sheets and the tree labels were assembled by UFI intern Amanda Williams, and funding for the project was provided through a UK Student Sustainability Council grant.