Bluejack Oak Tree
The blue coloring in the leaves of the Bluejack Oak Tree, Quercus incana gives its name. The Bluejack Oak ranges from Virginia south to Florida and westward to Texas. The mature tree can grow to 50 feet, but usually is small, shrubby, and forms thickets that give important shelter for many wildlife animals such as squirrels, foxes, deer, raccoons, and game birds. The acorns are small and are eaten readily by wildlife animals and birds.
Chapman Oak Tree
The Chapman Oak Tree,Quercus chapmanii grows as a native plant from the Carolinas south to Florida. Although the Chapman Oak can grow to 50 feet., it is often smaller, even bushy and grows near sand dunes and in poor soils of the south. White tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, and game birds eat the acorns and birds use the trees as nesting sites. This tree thrives in the sandy soils of the south and appears to be salt water tolerant since it grows on the sand dunes of the Gulf and Atlantic Coast beaches.
Gobbler Oak Tree
The Gobbler Oak Tree, Quercus acutissima ‘Gobbler’ was developed by a research group in Kentucky as a wildlife oak variety more suitable to the feeding of turkey populations because only 150 acorns per pound are are much smaller and easier to eat by the turkey than the Sawtooth acorns that number about 50 acorns per pound. Large plantings of Gobbler Oaks are made near wildlife hunting sites, because the trees can grow as fast as 6 feet per year and produce acorns as early as 2 years. The Gobbler Oak quickly attract turkey populations on a repeating annual visitation, not only by the turkey but other game wildlife animals who feed on the small acorns.
Sawtooth Oak Tree
The Sawtooth Oak Tree, Quercus acutissima ‘Sawtooth’ was imported into American from China and has been extensively planted as a yard plant, shade tree and as a plantation wildlife tree for feeding deer, game birds, squirrels, and many other wildlife animals. The Sawtooth Oak offers many beneficial landscape bonuses such as extremely fast growth into a mature specimen in two or three seasons. The large oval shaped acorns can form in just two two after planting and appear to be the favorite and most inexpensive food source for wildlife food plot planters, because of then Sawtooth Oak acorns that quickly mature in the fall when wildlife food is scarce for birds, deer, and wildlife animals.
When used as a shade tree, a gardener can expect growth of 6 feet the first year that rapidly matures to shade the office or home. The elongated willow-like seven inch leaves are toothed and colored a lustrous green. During the fall the leaves turn yellow and then orange to give a pyramid-tree shade that becomes round at maturity. The Sawtooth Oak can also be grown very successfully along city streets to shade sidewalks, parks, recreational areas, and to purify the caustic fumes of diesel and gasoline engines.
Turkey Oak Tree
The Turkey Oak Tree, Quercus laevis is found growing in ranges from Virginia south to Florida, and west to Texas as a native tree that is well adapted to grow on poor soils and can be found growing in association with Bluejack Oak and Post Oak Trees in Longleaf Pine Tree forests. The Turkey Oak Tree usually is small when compared to other Oak trees growing about 20-30 feet. The Turkey Oak Tree grows small acorns similar to Gobbler Oak Tree acorns that are voraciously eaten by turkey and many other small wildlife game birds and small wildlife animals. The wood is used commercially as firewood and only rarely as hardwood flooring when found as large Turkey Oak Trees.
White Oak Tree
The White Oak Tree, Quercus alba, is one of the largest Oak trees in native forests and is prized as the state tree in Illinois, Connecticut, and Maryland. A large 84 ft tall and 4 feet in diameter White Oak has been indexed in the Oak forests of Ohio, and has a life span of hundreds of years and appears to be very resistant to insect and disease problems.
The acorns of the White Oak are eaten by deer, game birds, and many other wildlife animals. The early American Indians made a variety of recipes from the acorns. The white bark is very attractive as a landscape specimen tree, and the attractive inner wood is choice for oak hardwood floors and for furniture manufacturing. The White Oak Trees grow best on well drained soils and are widely adapted as a native forest tree throughout the United States, and is the most common Oak tree in American forests. This tree is salt water tolerant and forms a tap root, even in the juvenile stage of growth.