Oak ID
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Bowfreak
06-Sep-17
I am curioius about this oak tree. Bark resembles white oak but is a little rougher. Has a butt swell like a scarlet oak.
This is NE KY.
From: sticksender
06-Sep-17
Possible chestnut oak. Lots of those here in SW Indiana. Any acorn pics?
From: BUCKeye
06-Sep-17
Burr Oak
From: WV Mountaineer
06-Sep-17
Its not a chestnut oak. Take a picture of the leaves in the canopy. You are showing shaded leaves. Which often are mis-shaped and of irregular size. From what I'm seeing, I'm guessing a post oak or a Burr Oak. God Bless
From: Bowfreak
06-Sep-17
Not a chestnut. Here is a closeup of one leaf.
From: elk yinzer
06-Sep-17
Looks like a regular white oak to me. They have a lot of varying bark and foilage. Maybe a swamp white oak, plus different white oak subspecies can hybridize.
From: BUCKeye
06-Sep-17
Some of the leaves and the bark in the first photo are 100% positive burr oak. I am less sure about that second leaf photo.
From: Bowfreak
06-Sep-17
Ill get better leaf photos tomorrow.
From: midwest
06-Sep-17
My guess is swamp white oak based on my years of experience using google. :-)
If it was a burr oak, it would have a giant hen of the woods mushroom under it by now. :-)
From: 12yards
06-Sep-17
Looks like a white oak to me. Bur Oak will have acorns with a hairy cap.
From: Woods Walker
06-Sep-17
The lobes should be deeper for a Burr Oak. It's in the white oak family, Swamp White Oak I believe, based on that last leaf picture.
From: EmbryOklahoma
06-Sep-17
I have another question about white oaks... why is it you can have several white oaks in a vicinity, with somewhat similar age and one has tons of acorns, and the others do not? We have one white that is a MONSTER producer and it is by our gate to the property. Always deer tracks all around it.
From: WV Mountaineer
06-Sep-17
Well, its definitely in the White Oak family. Which is why I'm going the Post or Burr Oak route. BUCKeye is more than likely correct based on two things. I thought it was bug damage initially but, those leaves in the first pic look like Burr Oak if it isn't bug damage. And, burr oak can have a dark shade to it's white oak looking bark.
From: WV Mountaineer
06-Sep-17
Just like people, trees are not created equal. Or, it could be prevailing wind during pollination too. Or, a host of several things. Who really knows for sure?
From: Woods Walker
06-Sep-17
Embry: One of the reasons why that can happen is if one of the trees is at a lower elevation than the others and may have had some of it's spring flowers frozen off by a late spring frost. Or it could have been in the direct path of a severe wind or downdraft that damaged the blooms. I've seen the first situation on the ground I hunt in northern Illinois. One year the White Oaks on the ridge tops had a bounty of acorns while the ones closer to the bottoms had barely any.
From: Fuzzy
07-Sep-17
Black Oak
From: Woods Walker
07-Sep-17
You know, I wouldn't argue with that either. The lobe ends of the leaf pictured above are a mite too pointy to be in the white oak family. It's hard to go by just one leaf though.
From: WV Mountaineer
07-Sep-17
The second leaf does look red oak family. The bark definitely looks like BO too. But, the first pic has no leaf indicators of that. Unless I'm mistaking bug damage. Which is possible. I've lost 50% of my vision in the last 6 months. So, nothing i look at, unless it's really close, is defined in my eye. :^)
From: Brotsky
07-Sep-17
I'm not sure what kind it is but I can say with 100% certainty it is not a bur oak.
From: Bowfreak
07-Sep-17
I believe it is in the red oak family. The lobes have bristles on the end. They probably don't show in the picture.
From: Bowfreak
07-Sep-17
LOL...just noticed my 4th grader's spaghetti stains on the place mat.
From: Buck Watcher
07-Sep-17
Buck Watcher's Link
This might help. US Forest Service guide to Oaks.
From: CAS_HNTR
07-Sep-17
One thing to note with oaks......often times the leaves are the worst thing to get positive ID on the species. They don't always grow to form and often grow quite distorted on low branches that we can easily reach for pictures like shown above.
The bark, branch shape, acorn appearance (with cap), and leaves together is the best of positive ID.
From: Woods Walker
07-Sep-17
Yup. Hairy nuts are a dead giveaway!
From: Bowfreak
08-Sep-17
Here's a branch from about 15' up. More close ups of bark.
From: Bowfreak
08-Sep-17
No acorns on it
From: BUCKeye
08-Sep-17
The lowest leaf in the first pic is absolutely classic bur oak. The 2nd and 3rd pic leaves do not look like the first pic but I cant see the detail on the 3rd one clearly.
From: Bowfreak
08-Sep-17
Forgot the bark pic.
From: Bowsage
08-Sep-17
Blackjack
From: Bowfreak
08-Sep-17
It's not a white oak species. It has pointed lea e'd and bristles.
From: sticksender
08-Sep-17
Since you have no acorns, maybe give us some more info to help ID your oak. The following might help eliminate or confirm what you've got.Bur Oak has an unmistakeable "rugged" or "gnarly" look to the woody crown, but that will be more visible after leaf drop. But you also could pretty much eliminate Bur Oak, if the woody twigs don't have distinctive corky fins like this:
White oaks generally have a more "whitish" bark than your tree shows, so I doubt it's any type of white oak. But here is a pic of 3 different leaves off of a Swamp White Oak that I planted in 1991. Notice the dramatic difference in appearance of these 3 leaves, and all came from the same branch. The leaf on the right does look vaguely similar to your single leaf picture above. The big thing with Swamp White Oak though, is that the bottom surface of the leaf is almost white in color. So check your leaves on the bottom, but my guess is that you won't find them matching that description.
If you could post a pic of the whole tree showing the crown formation, that might help too.
White oaks generally have a more "whitish" bark than your tree shows, so I doubt it's any type of white oak. But here is a pic of 3 different leaves off of a Swamp White Oak that I planted in 1991. Notice the dramatic difference in appearance of these 3 leaves, and all came from the same branch. The leaf on the right does look vaguely similar to your single leaf picture above. The big thing with Swamp White Oak though, is that the bottom surface of the leaf is almost white in color. So check your leaves on the bottom, but my guess is that you won't find them matching that description.If you could post a pic of the whole tree showing the crown formation, that might help too.
From: Bowriter
09-Sep-17
I believe that is a mystery. Some pictures look like white oak, some like red oak. Here is the main problem, from state to state, even county to county. the same tree will have different names. In the first pictures, I would swear it is in the white oak family and quite likely a burr oak. In the later pictures, it certainly appears to be in the red oak family. One thing for sure, since that is all the families there are for oaks, it is one of them. Oh wait a minooze. I cleaned my glasses. Yes, that is indeed a member of the white oak family but not a common eastern white oak. Probably not a chestnut nor is it a water oak or swamp chestnut. If I could see an acorn, I could probably be even more confusing. Why not Googleize it and match it up? Now, the leaves in Bowfreak's second picture are really confusing. Some are lobed and a couple have points and serration. That leads me to think sawtooth...or...just a tremendously cruel joke, designed to place great amounts of consternation among those of us who have trouble telling a jack pine from a magnolia. This is a standard eastern red oak. That I know cause the owner tolt me so. Now-more useless info. No matter the family-red or white- deer do not eat all oak acorns the same. In some years, they prefer one tree, in other years, a different tree and obviously, all oaks do not bear nuts every year. Much depends on when freezes hit and amounts of rain. Generally, nuts of the white are preferred due to less tannin, therefore, sweeter nuts. But in years of plenty, at times, deer target a red oak for variety. In my specific area, deer do not like chestnut oak because our variety, coupled with soil content, yields a bitter nut. This year, we have a bumper crop of both red and white oaks as well as persimmons. Again, deer are selective abut which persimmons they eat. Ilearnt all this at the fruit and nut collitch. And some from watching the deer herd in my "backyard". Right now, they are hammering the sawtooth. The standard eastern reds and whites have not started dropping, yet.
From: Bowfreak
09-Sep-17
They are pointed JTV. You just have to see them close. It is a black oak. My friend is a Forrester and has nearly 30 years experience. He confirmed it for me today.
From: Pigsticker
09-Sep-17
My guess was a black oak. Definitely not a white oak.
From: AZ~Rich
09-Sep-17
My vote is for Overcup Oak.
From: stick n string
09-Sep-17
Its a hardwood ;^)
From: Woods Walker
09-Sep-17
...and deciduous! (I think........)
From: Lee
09-Sep-17
Looks like a black oak
Lee
From: Zbone
11-Sep-17
White oak species have rounded lopes, black oak species have pointed lopes, so its of the black oak family...
From: Genesis
12-Sep-17
Good thread.....We have a lot of "Blackjack" down south but never can say I've known what a Black Oak looks like......unless Arkansas....:)
From: Joey Ward
12-Sep-17
Genesis, that's just Jim Dandy!
;-)
From: Will tell
12-Sep-17
From: longbeard
12-Sep-17
I would have guessed Burr Oak. Those leaves look more rounded than pointed
From: Woods Walker
12-Sep-17
It's a nutria oak!
From: AZ~Rich
12-Sep-17
Here are the four most similar oaks known to be found in KY. IMO, the Black Jack Oak is unlikely due to the hallmark triangulated upper half of leaf not seen the others. It could be a hybrid also. The overall shape most resembles a Swamp White Oak with the Overcup being close as well. The basic White Oak also fits these shapes but seems less likely to vary with any bristle-tipped teeth.
From: sticksender
12-Sep-17
The OP already posted above that he found out from a Forester that it's a Black Oak.The difficulty with using those printed or on-line tree ID guides is that they usually only show one sample of leaves. The black oak leaves in those guides, with super-deep notches, look WAY different from the black oaks that I'm accustomed to seeing in southern Indiana.Here's a Black Oak that I sprouted from an acorn and then transplanted to my farm here in Indiana about 20 years ago. On close study, it does look like a pretty good match to the OP's tree.
From: WV Mountaineer
12-Sep-17
Pull the bark back a bit in a tiny spot to the cambium layer. If it has an orangeish or yellow tint where scuffed, it is a Black Oak end of discussion. While the bark looks like it, I've never seen one with so much leaf variations. And, I'm a forester too. God Bless
