Quercus bicolor Willd.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Quercus bicolor' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-bicolor/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

  • Quercus
  • Subgen. Quercus, Sect. Quercus

Common Names

  • Swamp White Oak

Synonyms

  • Q. platanoides Sudw.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

acorn
Fruit of Quercus; a single-seeded nut set in a woody cupule.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Quercus bicolor' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-bicolor/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A deciduous tree 60 to 70 ft (occasionally more) high, with loose, scaly bark, young shoots slightly downy at first, becoming glabrous. Leaves obovate, 3 to 7 in. long, 112 to 4 in. wide, tapered at the base, the six to eight shallow, rounded lobes at each side often reduced to mere undulations towards the top, upper surface dark polished green, soon becoming glabrous; lower surface pale grey, clothed with a close, soft felt; midrib and stalk yellowish, the latter 12 to 34 in. long, more or less downy. Fruits borne usually in pairs on a more or less downy stalk 2 to 3 in. long; acorn about one-third enclosed in the cup.

Native of eastern N. America; introduced in 1800. Although the best of the white oaks for this country it is not a first-rate tree. At Kew it is quite healthy, the trunk very shaggy through the bark being attached in loose scales. The undersurface of the leaf on the trees at Kew is not so silvery white as it usually is in N. America, but even here the soft felt beneath renders it distinct. Its acorns are occasionally formed with us, but rarely ripen, although in nature they mature in one season.

Q. bicolor is well represented at Kew, where the largest examples in the Oak collection are 62 × 534 ft and 62 × 634 ft (1972); the former is known to have been planted in 1873. There is another of about the same size near the Japanese Gateway. Other specimens are: Syon House, London, 70 × 914 ft (1967), and Pampisford, Cambs., 75 × 614 ft (1969).

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, pl. 1873, 62 × 534 ft and, pl. 1905, 70 × 7 ft (1972–3); Syon House, London, 82 × 934 ft (1982); Kensington Gardens, London, 70 × 614 ft (1981).