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Plant · P-996
Southern Red Oak
Quercus falcata
Southern Red Oak is a long-lived upland tree that grows fast for an oak and can hold on ground too worn out for most other trees to bear. Its acorns can be leached and ground into flour or roasted as a coffee substitute, though the crop only ripens every other year and the tree doesn't bear its first one until about twenty-five years old. The bark has a long history as a fever and dysentery remedy, chewed for mouth sores and brewed as a tonic. Straight-trunked when young, it spreads into a broad, well-formed crown that makes it one of the better shade trees for eroded or degraded soil.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 6–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 4.8–6
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 60–80 ft
- Mature spread
- 40–50 ft
- Plant spacing
- 55 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-deep
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Alligator Juniper
Juniperus deppeana
Alligator juniper is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen conifer named for its thick, deeply furrowed, plated bark that resembles reptile…
Canopy · USDA 6–9
American Beech
Fagus grandifolia
American Beech is a slow, long-lived shade tree that can establish and eventually fruit even under an existing forest canopy, unlike almost…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
American chestnut once carried the sweetest nut of any chestnut species and covered more than 200 million acres of eastern forest, but an…
Canopy · USDA 5–8
American Elm
Ulmus americana
American Elm is a native stream-bank tree that grows into a 60 to 80 foot vase-shaped shade crown and, once mature, becomes one of the…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Holly
Ilex opaca
American holly is a slow-growing evergreen understory tree with spiny, leathery leaves and bright red winter berries that at least eighteen…
Canopy · USDA 5–9
American Persimmon
Diospyros virginiana
American persimmon fruit is bitterly astringent until it goes fully soft-ripe, usually only after the first hard frost, at which point it…
Canopy · USDA 4–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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