Home › Volumes › Trees › How to Know the Trees

Oaks — Part 6

Look at a swamp white oak against a winter sky. I mean that old one which has stood there with its feet in the water as long as you can remember. In fact, it seemed to be grown up when first you were told its name. The head is narrow for an oak, the limbs short and tortuous, especially on the lower half of the tree where they have a downward tendency, seeming to sprawl as widely as their grizzled and stubby length permits. Storms have cut gashes in the outline of the top. A weird grey pallor heightens the expression of age. The bark strips off of the branches somewhat after the sycamore's mode of moulting. Nothing contributes more to the picturesqueness of a tree than ragged bark.

In spring the rough coat of the tree is concealed by the opening leaves. The black oaks flush crimson when they wake in the May sunshine. The young leaves of the swamp white oak are green, with a silvery scurf that lines them the summer through. Even in its autumn colour the foliage turns yellow and never red. All through the summer the brilliant foliage, lustrous yellow-green above, turns its silvery linings out in every breeze, and fairly illuminates the duller trees that stand about. One authority calls it Quercus bicolor, for the two colours of its leaves.

This is one of the chestnut oak group. The leaf proves it by its shape and margin. The long, sweet nut in its fringed or plain cup is worthy the attention of any hungry man or beast.

The swamp white oak is easily transplanted and it grows rapidly, but because it is known to be a hard drinker people do not plant it, forgetting that trees sometimes are happy out of their normal habitat. This oak flourishes as a street tree, and does well in any moist, rich soil, graciously waiving, for our satisfaction, its natural preferences.

But he who would have this tree in its grandest state will wish it set at some distance from his house, and where it is made very comfortable. While we transplant small saplings into our grounds, let us exert ourselves to cherish the old ones and help the community to realise what a precious thing one of these veteran trees is--the natural heritage of all who can see it.

Basket Oak, Cow Oak (Quercus Michauxii, Nutt.)--A large handsome tree, 60 to 100 feet high, 3 to 7 feet in diameter at base, with stout ascending branches forming a round, dense head. Bark scaly, silvery or ashy grey, with reddish tinge. Wood hard, strong, tough, durable, close grained with large medullary rays and spring wood ducts, separating it into annual layers. Similar to other white-oak lumber. Buds pointed, 1/4 inch long, scaly, with red hairs. Leaves 6 to 8 inches long, broadly obovate, regularly undulate on margins, sinuses equal to the lobes in size and shape, shining, dark green above, pubescent, often silvery white below. Crimson in autumn. Flowers with half-grown leaves, March to May. Acorns annual, solitary or paired, on short stem 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, oval, pointed, bright brown, in shallow, scaly cup, which is flat bottomed and lined with down; kernels sweetest of Eastern acorns, eaten by children, negroes and domestic animals. Preferred habitat, swamps and bottom lands liable to inundation. Distribution, northern Delaware to Florida; west to Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Uses: Important timber tree, lumber ranking with white oak. A handsome ornamental tree, worthy of cultivation in wet ground.

The common names of trees are interesting, always, and often confusing. It is sometimes difficult to trace their origin and to explain their meaning. This beautiful tree, the most valuable annual-fruited oak of the Southeastern States, differs from others of the group in that its wood separates like that of the black ash into annual layers. The toughness and strength of these sheets adapt them to basket making--the most durable bushel baskets, china crates, etc., are made of strips of this oak. It is easy to see why the name "basket oak" came into use. But who shall explain the name "cow oak"? Perhaps it is enough that the acorns are sweet and cows eat them. Perhaps if I lived where the cow oak does I might give an answer that is more than simply a guess. The basket oak is one of the best mast trees in the country. The trees are very prolific, and each year hogs are fattened upon the acorns wherever the trees are common in the woods.

There would be an appearance of heaviness, perhaps, in this handsome oak, if it were not that the lustrous leaves are lined with silver that seems to catch and hold the light, reflecting it to the inner parts of the treetop. When the wind blows the contrast of light and shade is strikingly beautiful. In many particulars the basket oak resembles the swamp white oak, and some authorities hold that Quercus Michauxii is the Southern form of Quercus platanoides, for their ranges meet and do not overlap.