Quercus phellos L.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Quercus phellos' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-phellos/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

Genus

Common Names

  • Willow Oak

Infraspecifics

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Quercus phellos' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-phellos/). Accessed 2024-03-19.

A deciduous tree from 70 to 100 ft high, forming a rounded or columnar head of branches; bark glabrous, grey; young shoots and leaves at first downy, then glabrous. Leaves pale green, thin, oblong-lanceolate, tapered at the base, mostly pointed at the apex, entire, or slightly wavy on each margin; 2 to 512 in. long, 13 to 1 in. wide; stalk 18 to 14 in. long, minutely downy or glabrous. Acorns (rarely seen on introduced trees) scarcely bigger than a large red currant, and produced in a shallow, saucer-shaped cup.

Native of the Atlantic states of the USA to northern Florida, thence westward through the lower Mississippi valley to eastern Texas; introduced early in the 18th century. It is quite distinct from all the other cultivated deciduous oaks in its glabrous, narrow, normally untoothed leaves. In the young state it is a very elegant tree. Although not common in Britain, it thrives here and reaches a large size, as the following measurements show: Kew, near the Pagoda, a forked tree 70 × 12 ft at 3 ft (1967); in the Oak collection, 64 × 714 ft (1972) and pl. 1901, 77 × 7 ft, grafted at ground-level (1972); Knap Hill Nursery, Surrey, 60 × 1112 ft (1961); Cobham Hall, Kent, 82 × 1214 ft (1965); Highnam Court, Glos., 52 × 8 ft at 4 ft (1970); Bicton, Devon, 57 × 634 ft at 4 ft (1968); Glen-durgan, Cornwall, 40 × 534 ft (1965).

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, in Oak Collection, pl. 1901, 75 × 814 ft, pl. 1906, 76 × 712 ft (1986) and in oak planting west of Broad Walk, 66 × 1234 ft at 3 ft (1981); Syon House, London, 60 × 414 ft (1982); Alexandra Park, Hastings, Sussex, 85 × 714 ft (1983); Knap Hill Nursery, Surrey, 65 × 1214 ft (1974); Highnam Court, Glos., 52 × 8 ft at 4 ft (1970); Powis Castle, Powys, 66 × 814 ft (1981).


Q laurifolia Michx.

Synonyms
Q. rhombica Sarg.
Q. obtusa (Willd.) Ashe
Q. hybrida Ashe
Q. hemisphaeriea Bartr. ex Willd

Leaves glabrous beneath except for axillary tufts, as in Q. phellos, some of them shaped more or less as in that species, others asymmetrically widened on one side in the upper half, or obovate with a rounded apex, or rhombic-elliptic, or even asymmetrically lobed. It is possibly the result of hybridisation between Q. phellos and Q. nigra (Burk, Journ. El. Mitch. Sc. Soc., Vol. 79 (1963), pp. 159–63).