Quercus Rubra

The Quercus Rubra is commonly known as Common Red Oak, Eastern Red Oak, Gray Oak, Mountain Red Oak, Northern Red Oak, as well as Red Oak

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Growing Regions

Northern red oak is widely distributed throughout much of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada.  It grows from Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick southward to southwestern Georgia and Alabama [39,101].  Northern red oak extends westward through Minnesota and Iowa, south through eastern Nebraska and Kansas to eastern Oklahoma [101].  It occurs locally in eastern and southwestern Louisiana and western Mississippi [39,69]. The variety rubra grows in Georgia and Alabama, northward through Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia to New England [93,104].  The variety borealis occurs farther north than variety rubra does [30]. Variety borealis occurs in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina in the South and extends northward throughout New England to Maine [39,104].

     

General Information

Northern red oak is a member of the red oak-black oak subgenus (Erythrobalanus) within the order Fagales [11]. The currently accepted scientific name of northern red oak is Quercus rubra L. [69]. The epithet Q. rubra was formerly applied to several species of oak including the southern red oak (Q. falcata) [13,69]. Some later taxonomists rejected the appellation Q. rubra because of past ambiguity and in 1915 identified northern red oak as Q. borealis [69,101]. In 1950, the name Q. rubra was restored [101]. Most current authorities prefer the epithet Q. rubra, although Q. borealis is still occasionally encountered in the literature. The following varieties are commonly recognized [54]: Quercus rubra var. borealis (Michx. f.) Farw. Quercus rubra var. rubra Northern red oak hybridizes with many oaks including scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), shingle oak (Q. imbricata), swamp oak (Q. palustris), willow oak (Q. phellos), scrub oak (Q. ilicifolia), northern pin oak (Q. ellipsoidalis), black oak (Q. velutina), blackjack oak (Q. marilandica) and Shumard oak (Q. shumardii) [69,93,101]. The following hybrid products have been identified: Q. X runcinata (A. DC.) Engelm. (Q. imbricata x Q. rubra) Q. X heterophylla (Michx. f.) (Q. phellos x Q. rubra) Q. X hawkinsiae Sudw. (Q. rubra x Q. velutina) Q. X riparia Laughlin (Q. shumardii x Q. rubra) Q. X columnaris Laughlin (Q. palustris x Q. rubra) Q. X fernaldii (Q. ilicifolia x Q. rubra)

Northern red oak occurs as a dominant in many communities [77],
including mixed mesophytic forests, pine-oak communities, and southern
bottomland forests [12,110].

Publications listing northern red oak as an indicator or dominant in
habitat type (hts) classifications are presented below:

Area              Classification                Authority
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n MI, ne WI       general veg. hts              Coffman and others 1980
n WI              general veg. hts              Kotar and others 1988

• More Quercus Rubra Information

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