This is an excerpt from the Book called “NATIVE TREES FOR NORTH AMERICAN LANDSCAPES “. Continue reading to learn more about Quercus Velutina – Trees of North America, thanks to the author.
Quercus Velutina
BLACK OAK
DESCRIPTION: Black oak is another member of the red oak group (sectionLobatae, formerly subgenus Erythrobalanus). Among the most massive eastern oaks, black oak is also one of the most drought resistant, ranking close to its frequent associates blackjack oak (Quercusmarilandica) and post oak (Q.stellata). It is also common on much better sites, growing in association with red oak (Q.rubra) and white oak (Q. alba). This is truly an adaptable tree.
Black oak accepts almost any soil type, from sand dunes to tight clay. It is very intolerant of shade and more prone to structural damage and decay than red oak, but some trees escape such injury to reach massive proportions on better soils. The largest known black oak, in Virginia, is a full-crowned specimen 108 feet (32.4m) high, broader than it is tall, and nearly 9 feet (2.7m) in diameter.
LEAVES: Black oak leaves are thick, glossy, and stiff, and they often turn deep orange or dark red in fall. Their early spring color, a bright, velvety red, is just as attractive. They vary in size, averaging 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) in length but occasionally reaching nearly twice that size.
FLOWERS AND FRUIT: The yellow staminate catkins of black oak are among the longest and most colourful and showy of the genus. Flowering and fruiting tendencies are similar to those of blackjack oak, with which it frequently crosses in the wild. The scales on the margins of its acorn cups are slightly loose or raised at their tips, like shingles being blown up in a strong wind.
BEST SEASONS: SPRING (for the red, velvety new leaves and the yellow catkins). FALL (for those trees with the best fall color). SUMMER (for the attractive, glossy foliage).
NATIVE AND ADAPTIVE RANGE:Black oak is a very common tree over a broad area from the Lake States and southern Ontario south to the Gulf Coast and west to eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It covers much the same southern and central range as red oak but stops near Kingston, Ontario, in the North. Trees from northern provenance can be grown in USDA zone4.
CULTURE:This oak is extremely difficult to transplant and is best grown from seed or preserved in place. It is also very sensitive to soil disturbance and grade changes, so give it a wide berth during construction. Seeds germinate in spring following fall planting. They usually devote more of their initial energy to root growth than top growth, so root control techniques are useful when growing seedlings for transplanting. Young trees may develop forked leaders, which should be thinned as soon as possible to leave only the straightest or strongest one.
PROBLEMS:most of the problems that affect blackjack oak (Quercusmarilandica) and red oak (Q.rubra) apply to this species. Black oak and most related oaks are very susceptible to oak wilt (Ceratocystisfagacearum) and other problems specific to the red oak group.
CULTIVARS:Black oak cultivars are mostly of European cultivated origin and largely reflect subtle differences in leaf shape or size. Named selections include ‘Albertsii’, Angustifolia,’ Macrophylla’, and ‘Magnifica’. The genetic base of this species is narrow in Europe, so it seems that anything found there that looks a little different given a name. If European horticulturists were able to spend a few weeks touring black oak habitats throughout eastern North America, they would likely come away with a better appreciation of the diversity of this species. To expand the scope of cultivar selection for black oak in Europe, I am cooperating with Professor Eike Jablonski of Luxembourg to propagate a new cut-leaf form I found in Illinois, tentatively named ‘Oakridge Walker’.
SIMILAR AND RELATED SPECIES: Another North American tree called black oak, Quercuskelloggii, is a California species not found in our region. Southern red oak (Q.falcata) is a southern associate of black oak and can subsist on some of most abused, degraded red soils found anywhere in the in the South. Old southern red oaks frequently appear weather-beaten and unkempt due to the hard life they have lived, but southern red oak can make a remarkable tree when grown in a favourable location, and it can grow rapidly in good soil. The enormous U.S. national champion southern red oak grows in Upson County, Georgia. It is 150 feet (45 m) tall with an equal branch spread and a trunk more than 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter.
Southern red oak has such variable foliage that botanists have argued for years about the existence, or number, of taxonomic varieties and forms that should be recognized. I have observed that seedlings propagated from trees with different leaf forms are not readily matched to their parents by leaf shape. Some have three lobes, some more. Some have long, tail-like central lobes, while others are barely lobed at all or have stubby leaves shaped more like those of blackjack oak. Some have rich crimson fall color, and others are drab, I have seen some southern red oaks with spring, summer, and fall foliage that ranked among the most beautiful of any tree. I grow some of these trees in Illinois and have found that trees of northern origin can be grown in at least the warmer parts of USDA zone 5.
A closely allied species, often listed as a variety of southern red oak, is cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda, syns, Q. pagadaefolia and Q. falcatevar. Pagodaefolia). This tall, massive tree is a fast-growing canopy species of rich, fertile bottomlands. It may be the most valuable oak for timber production in the South, and it makes an attractive landscape tree as well, north at least to central Illinois, USDA zone 5. The straight, columnar trunks of forest-grown cherrybark oaks really do resemble those of wild cherry (Prunusserotina) with their dark, curly, cherrylike bark. Like black oak and southern red oak, this is one of our largest and most vigorous oaks. The biggest of all grows in Sussex Country, Virginia, standing 124 feet (37.2 m) tall with an even bigger wingspan, supported on a trunk almost 9 feet (2.7 m) thick.
Comments: Black oak is a tree for all seasons. In spring its emerging leaves and staminate catkins are among the most colourful of the oaks. Its dark, glossy foliage remains attractive all summer and often turns a nice crimson in fall. The heavy twigs, with their large, fuzzy buds that look almost like brown pussy willow (Salix discolor) catkins, catch the sunlight of winter. And black oak is one parent of two of the most frequently seen oak hybrids in eastern North America. Wherever it grows on clay or loam soil near shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria), the nothospecies Q. xleana is likely to be found; and where it shares a drier habitat with blackjack oak, watch for the nothospecies Q. xbushii. Both taxa can be found in cultivation as well.
For early Americans the inner bark of this tree was a primary source of quercitron, a yellow dye material which they harvested for export. The straight logs of moderate-sized trees were favoured for rail splitting and log home construction. But ornamental flare and exploitation aside, consider the primeval savannas of black oak encountered in Georgia by naturalist William Bartram on his travels more than two hundred years ago, as recorded in his journal, published in 1791 (Van Doren 1928): “ The most magnificent forest I have ever seen… I can assert that many of the black oaks measured eight, nine, ten, and eleven feet in diameter five feet above the ground… from thence they ascend perfectly straight with a gradual taper, forty or fifty feet to the limbs.”
