Resistant to powdery mildew and anthracnose. Use up and down arrow keys to explore within a submenu. Bur oaks commonly get to be 200 to 300 years old, and may live up to 400 years. Have tree and plant questions? But some problems include cankers, shoestring root rot, oak wilt, powdery mildew, anthracnose, leaf spots, chestnut blight, and oak leaf blister. It occurs from southern New Brunswick and New England westward to the Dakotas and southeastern Montana, and south to Tennessee, Arkansas, and the central prairies of Texas Œ with rare outliers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Bur oaks are the dominant trees that grace Arbor Day Farm and the hills and valleys surrounding Nebraska City. ", Southern Research Station (www.srs.fs.fed.us), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quercus_macrocarpa&oldid=990806748, Trees of the Plains-Midwest (United States), Flora of the Great Plains (North America), Articles with unsourced statements from May 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 November 2020, at 16:38. Without fires, bur oak is often succeeded by other tree and shrub species that are more shade-tolerant. Its massive trunk has gray to brown furrowed bark and its branches bear lustrous dark green leaves that turn yellow-brown in fall. Browse the curated collection and add your voice! It is drought resistant, possibly because of its long taproot. Quercus, native to North America in the eastern and central United States and eastern and central Canada. Anthracnose, bacterial leaf scorch, and powdery mildew. It has been planted in many climates, ranging northwards to Anchorage, Alaska, and as far south as Mission, Texas. Bur oak is sometimes confused with overcup oak and the white oak, Quercus alba. Keep in mind that the trees also have broad, rounded crowns. Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menus and submenus. In this evolutionary strategy, known as masting, the large seed crop every few years overwhelms the ability of seed predators to eat the acorns, thus ensuring the survival of some seeds. Quercus, native to North America in the eastern and central United States and eastern and central Canada. Large bur oaks, older than 12 years,[10] are fire-tolerant because of their thick bark. Summer foliage is glossy dark green, changing to yellow in fall. The wood when sawn transversely shows the characteristic annual rings formed by secondary thickening. Full sun in well drained soil, but adaptable to many soils. Bur oaks have noticeably larger leaves with a less defined shape compared to the leaves of white oak trees. Large acorns with fringed caps attract birds and small mammals. Fall color is yellow. The flowers are greenish-yellow catkins, produced in the spring. Within a submenu, use escape to move to top level menu parent. Most often, the basal two-thirds is narrower and deeply lobed, while the apical third is wider and has shallow lobes or large teeth. Our future. Other wildlife, such as deer and porcupine, eat the leaves, twigs and bark. Can be affected by pests such as the leaf galls and kermes scale. Naturally occurring saplings in forests will typically be older. The terminal lobe can be fiddle-shaped.Leaves are lustrous, dark green above with lighter silvery green beneath.Fall color is yellow-brown. Best planted in well-drained soil in full sun. For places named after the oak, see, 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T33991A2839807.en, World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, "Bur Oak – Could it be our best fast-growing shade tree? It withstands chinook conditions in Calgary, Alberta. The Morton Arboretum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that relies on the generosity of members and donors. However, other sources state that a bur oak tree that is planted in the ground grows up to 3 ft (91 cm) per year. Explore this online platform for Chicago-area residents to share their favorite stories about trees. Cattle are heavy browsers in some areas. Quercus macrocarpa is widespread in the Atlantic coastal plain from New Brunswick to North Carolina, west as far as Alberta, eastern Montana, Wyoming, and northeastern New Mexico. The dark green foliage of this hybrid is resistant to powdery mildew. Bur oak trees are medium to large sized trees. The leaves of bur oaks have a glossy dark-green face with a greenish white underside. Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menus and submenus. This plant has some cultivated varieties. It is one of the slowest-growing oaks, with a growth rate of 1 ft (30 cm) per year when young. This plant is also called mossycup oak and mossycup white oak. Oak wilt is a serious disease of oaks.Bur oak blight has been found in isolated areas in Illinois. Drought tolerant once established.Prune oaks in the dormant season to avoid attracting beetles that may carry oak wilt. From top level menus, use escape to exit the menu. Fruit ripens in the fall. Bur oak is grows natively throughout much of the north-central United States and the eastern Great Plains. The stately bur oak, native to the Midwest, is a great choice as a shade tree and for specimen plantings in parks, spacious yards, and other large areas. Cultivars are plants produced in cultivation by selective breeding or via vegetative propagation from wild plants identified to have desirable traits.". Go to list of cultivars. Building the urban forest for 2050. For this reason, it is an important tree on the eastern prairies, often found near waterways in otherwise more forested areas, where there is a break in the canopy. This plant is also called mossycup oak and mossycup white oak. Bur oak is noted for it’s ability to grow where there is lots of weed and grass competition and English oak is noted for it’s ability to grow in heavy clay soils making this hybrid very adaptable to … [9] One of the bur oak's most common habitats, especially in Midwestern United States, is the oak savanna, where fires often occurred in early spring or late fall, especially in hill country. At the end of the growing season, a one-year sapling may have a taproot 1.37 m (4 ft 6 in) deep and a lateral root spread of 76 cm (2 ft 6 in). This species is native to the Chicago region according to Swink and Wilhelm's Plants of the Chicago Region, with updates made according to current research. “This plant is a cultivar of a species that is native to the Chicago Region according to Swink and Wilhelm's Plants of the Chicago Region, with updates made according to current research. Get expert help from The Morton Arboretum Plant Clinic. Our communities. The bur oak is the only known foodplant of Bucculatrix recognita caterpillars. Quercus macrocarpa, the bur oak, sometimes spelled burr oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus sect. They are deciduous members of the white oak group and grow to heights between 60 and 150 feet tall (18 to 46 m.). Urban Pinnacle® (Quercus macrocarpa 'JFS-KW3): Form is narrow and pyramidal (25 feet wide). Bur oaks primarily grow in a temperate climate on the western oak-hickory forested regions in the US and into Canada.[8]. Acorns are much smaller than typical for bur oak. Older bur oaks may survive in dense woodlands for 80 years, until they are weakened by wood-rot fungi in the lower branches killed by shade, and by 100 to 110 years, they are often snapped by wind storms.