''Quercus phellos'', the willow oak, is a North American species of a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the red oak group of oaks. It is native to the south-central and eastern United States.

Description

It is a medium-sized tree growing to tall (exceptionally to ), with a trunk up to in diameter (exceptionally ). It is distinguished from most other oaks by its leaves, which are shaped like willow leaves, long and broad with an entire (untoothed and unlobed) margin; they are bright green above, paler beneath, usually hairless but sometimes downy beneath. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

is an

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera '' Quercus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and bo ...

, long, and almost as wide as long, with a shallow cup; it is one of the most prolific producers of acorns. The tree starts acorn production around 15 years of age, earlier than many oak species. Willow oaks can grow moderately fast (height growth up to a year), and tend to be conic to oblong when young, rounding out and gaining girth at maturity (i.e. more than 50 years).

Distribution and habitat

The species is most common in the

American south The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

and eastern states. It can be found from Long Island Sound south to northern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, and west to southernmost

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, Oklahoma, and eastern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Its natural range extends into southeastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

and southern

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. It has also historically been recorded as occurring in Lancaster, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties, chiefly on wet sites, occasionally in drier, upland ones. Illick, Joseph (1928), ''Pennsylvania Trees''. Much of that area has been built over and developed since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and the tree is now classified as endangered in the state. It is most commonly found growing on lowland floodplains, often along streams, but rarely also in uplands with poor drainage, up to in altitude.

Ecology

The acorns are eaten by squirrels and other wildlife.

Uses

Economic uses are primarily as an ornamental tree and the

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of ligni ...

for pulp and

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre e ...

production, but also for lumber; it is often marketed as "red oak" wood. The willow oak is one of the most popular trees for horticultural planting, due to its rapid growth, hardiness, balance between axial and radial dominance, ability to withstand both sun and shade, light green leaf color and full crown. Despite being heavily used in landscaping in the Southern US (in cities such as Washington, D.C., Raleigh, Charlotte, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

) around malls, along roads, etc., the trees tend to grow larger than planners expect, which often leads to cracked sidewalks.

References

External links

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: ''Quercus phellos'' Plant Profile

''Quercus phellos'' information and images from Vanderbilt University

Interactive Distribution Map of ''Quercus phellos''

photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1897
{{Taxonbar, from=Q783224 phellos Trees of the United States Trees of the Southeastern United States Flora of the Southern United States Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus