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Quercus Lyrata

The Quercus Lyrata is commonly known as Overcup Oak, Swamp Post Oak, Swamp White Oak, as well as Water White Oak

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Growing Regions

Overcup oak occurs on the Coastal Plain from southern Virginia south to Georgia and northwestern Florida; west to eastern Texas; north in the Mississippi Valley to extreme southeastern Oklahoma, southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky. Disjunct populations occur in Delaware, Maryland, central Tennessee, and northern Alabama [27,28].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of overcup oak is Quercus lyrata Walt. [18,28]. Two accepted forms are differentiated [7]: Q. l. forma lyrata, with hairy undersurfaces, Q. l. forma viridis Trel., with scattered hairs on leaf undersurfaces. Overcup oak hybridizes with many other oaks in the white oak subgenus (Quercus) including white oak (Q. alba), swamp white oak (Q. bicolor), Durand oak (Q. durandii), bur oak (Q. macrocarpa), swamp chestnut oak (Q. michauxii), post oak (Q. stellata), and live oak (Q. virginiana) [28]. Overcup oak is genetically most similar to post oak, based on electrophoretic evidence [14].

Overcup oak is dominant in only one described cover type, overcup
oak/water hickory (Carya aquatica) [8].  This cover type extended over
1,241,250 acres (496,500 ha) of the lower Mississippi Valley in 1990.
It was the most floristically diverse of the wet-site cover types, with
five species making up 60 percent of the basal area [30].

Tree associates not mentioned previously include laurel oak (Q.
laurifolia), American elm (Ulmus americana), cedar elm (U.
crassifolia), water locust (Gleditsia aquatica), common persimmon
(Diospyros virginiana), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), planer-tree (Planera
aquatica), and red maple (Acer rubrum).  Shrub associates include
swamp-privet (Forestiera acuminata), roughleaf dogwood (Cornus
drummondii), swamp dogwood (C. stricta), and common buttonbush
(Cephalanthus occidentalis) [12,39].

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Sullivan, Janet. Quercus lyrata. 1993. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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