Red Oak
Scientific name: Quercus rubra
This straight and fast growing tree can reach 100 feet and live up to 500 years. It has a pleasantly rounded crown and spreading branches. With its large leaves and dense habit, it makes a very pleasant shade tree. This oak, along with many other species, is a native to the northeast and is one of our most common types of tree. Plant an oak in your yard! These trees are valuable for birds, wildlife and even insects! As our planet gets warmer, the oak tree will do well here as they are trees of the south and currently we are near the extreme north of their range.
Leaves
The leaves have 7 to 11 lobes and what are known as bristle tips. See the photo to learn what this characteristic looks like. They are 5- 9 inches in length and turn brown in the fall.
Fruit
Distinct acorn cap that is shallow with a barrel shaped nut. They don’t ripen until their second autumn.
Flowers
Male flowers are the catkins – long drooping flowers about 3 inches long. Female flowers are small and inconspicuous, but once fertilized become the acorn. Both male and female flowers are present on the same tree. You can see photos of both below.
Similar Species
Oaks are the largest group of forest trees found in New York State. Of the 300 in the world, 55 are native to the US. The easiest way to categorize these is by putting them into two groups.
The white oaks have: 1) smooth and not bristle tip lobes 2)sweet tasting acorns 3) acorns that ripen in one year. The white oak, swamp white oak and chesnut oak fall into this category.
By contrast, black oaks have: 1) bristle-tipped lobes 2) bitter acorns 3) acorns that take two seasons to ripen. So if you see an acorn on an oak tree in winter, you know that it falls in this category! The black oak, pin oak, scarlet oak and red oak are in this category.
All of these oaks can be found here in Lewisboro.
Habitat
The Oak-Hickory Forest is one of our most common habitats, covering perhaps 25% of Lewisboro. It is found on dry hillsides and ridges that have thin, rocky and acidic soil.
Leaves
The leaves have 7 to 11 lobes and what are known as bristle tips. See the photo to learn what this characteristic looks like. They are 5- 9 inches in length and turn brown in the fall.
Bark
Thick ridges, grey in color. Looking up the tree, the long ridges in the bark have lighter stripes and are said to resemble “ski tracks”.
Fruit
Distinct acorn cap that is shallow with a barrel shaped nut. They don’t ripen until their second autumn.
Flowers
Male flowers are the catkins – long drooping flowers about 3 inches long. Female flowers are small and inconspicuous, but once fertilized become the acorn. Both male and female flowers are present on the same tree. You can see photos of both below.
Ecosystem Connections
This is a very valuable tree within our ecosystem in many respects.
The mourning cloak butterfly enjoys the tree sap of the oak. Many animals will eat the acorn in fall and into the winter when other food sources are scarce. It provides good cover and nesting sites, including cavities. Oak trees provide a great benefit for insects, including pollinators, hosting as many as 534 species of caterpillars!
Human Connections
Flooring and furniture are just two products out of many that are made from this tree as it is close-grained, heavy and hard. Unlike other oaks, its wood is porous and will not hold liquid. No chardonnay is aged in these barrels!
Native Americans ate the acorns after curing them to remove the bitter flavor.
Note the Bristled Tips
Leaves with Acorn
Distinctive "Ski Track"
Oak Flowers, Catkins & Acorns
More on Trees and Shrubs in Lewisboro
Lewisboro was once entirely forested except for patches of open field caused by fire and wetlands and ponds which were expanded by beaver dams. Although it is hard to believe, by 1800 most of Lewisboro’s forests had been cut down and replaced by farms. In 1820 so many trees had been cleared that there was no shade anywhere along the route from Boston to New York.[1] But by the mid-1800’s farming here became uneconomical and as farms were abandoned, the forests began to re-grow. Today, 70% of New York is once again forest, what some call ‘the great environmental story of the United States’[2]. These new forests provide us with beauty and recreation, clean air and water, flood control, erosion prevention, carbon sequestration, cooler temperatures and habitat for other plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.
[1] Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Macmillan, 1983.
[2] An Explosion of Green. B. Mckibben. Atlantic Monthly 275 (April 1995): 61-83.