Natural Highlights: Overcup Oak
Among the tree species volunteers will be planting during our upcoming Annual Tree Planting is the Overcup Oak (Quercus lyrata). Sometimes called Swamp White Oak and marketed as white oak lumber, the Overcup Oak is most likely to be found in flooded lowlands and along the margins of the rivers and streams in the Southeast, unlike the White Oak (Quercus alba) which prefers well-drained upland habitat. The Overcup Oak’s most recognizable feature is an acorn which is almost completely covered by a persistent burry cap. This cap enables the acorn to float during flooded conditions, an important adaptation to allow some of the nuts to find ground dry enough for germination. This also makes Overcup Oak acorns an important food source for waterfowl.
The Overcup Oak has the dark green, rounded and deeply lobed leaves of other members of the White Oak family, and it has attracted recent horticultural attention as a landscape tree. Though well-adapted to survival in bottomland forests, it grows very well in a typical Mid South urban yard and is appreciated for its beautiful form and utility as shade tree. Those distinctive acorns won’t appear until the tree is 25-30 years old!
For more information on the Overcup Oak, we suggest these links:
Among the tree species volunteers will be planting during our upcoming Annual Tree Planting is the Overcup Oak (Quercus lyrata)
