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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Quercus alba
The majestic White Oak is, quite simply, one of the most outstanding hardwood trees in North America. Its form, bark, foliage, and fall color are all amazing, and it is of great importance as food and habitat for animals of all types. Its acorns contain fewer tannins than other oaks and may be consumed without leaching. Native Americans were heavily dependent upon white oak acorn crops during the fall and winter months. They ground it into flour and used it in breads, cakes, and pastries.
Its glossy, ovate acorns are among the most attractive of all oaks. The foliage is outstanding, with gently lobed margins and an aesthetic form that provides deep shade in the landscape, the city, or the woodland. The tree spreads widely, with massive limbs that run almost at right angles to the trunk—perfect for tire swings, tree houses, or simply reclining against the trunk on them to read a book. White Oak rarely drops its limbs.
The wood of the tree is fairly strong, durable, and rot-resistant, making it useful for a variety of purposes. Historical uses include furniture, barrelmaking, construction, and shipbuilding.
Fagaceae (Beech)
Large deciduous tree with a wide, spreading form. Bark is light gray to white, with shallow fissures and large plates. Leaves are alternate, 5-9” long and 3-4” wide, obovate, and having 7-9 gently curving lobes. Flowers are 2-3” long male catkins and inconspicuous female flowers. Fruits are oblong acorns ½-1” long with a glossy sheen.
60-100 feet tall and 60-80 feet wide
Large deciduous tree with a wide, spreading form
Slow
Full sun to partial shade
White Oak adapts readily to dry and wet soils. It tolerates seasonal flooding and poor drainage. For drier soils, particularly for young plants, a 2-4” covering of mulch helps to reduce stress. It does not transplant easily because of its taproot, so be cautious and do not let the trees sit too long in containers.
White Oak’s assets include the pleasantly lobed foliage, its height and magnificence at maturity, and its plated white-gray bark in winter. It is an outstanding shade tree.
In an open space this tree can be huge and spreading. It makes an excellent specimen for shade or appearance and naturalizes easily in woodlands and fields. It works well as a companion to other native plants like ferns, blackgum, beeches, red maple, buckeyes, overcup oak, swamp chestnut oak, willow oak, and Shumard oak. Vining plants like Virginia and trumper creepers add extra interest.
White Oak’s leaves are a larval food for the Red-spotted Purple, Luna Moth, and Southern Hairstreak. The acorns are relished by turkeys, wood ducks, pheasants, grackles, jays, nuthatches, thrushes, woodpeckers, rabbits, squirrels and deer.
Wide-ranging across eastern North America from Maine and Quebec west to Minnesota, south to Texas, and east to Florida. It favors bottomlands, slopes, upland forests, ridges, and sandy scrublands.
Fresh acorns sown in the fall. They require stratification to germinate. Cover them with soil and leaves to ensure hungry squirrels don’t find them before spring!
Text by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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