QUERCUS ALBA Linnæus. White Oak. (× 1/2.)
Acorns from different trees to show variation.
White oak was formerly much used in construction work, but it has become so costly that cheaper woods take its place. At present it is used principally in cooperage, interior finish, wagon and car stock, furniture, agricultural implements, crossties, and veneer. Indiana has the reputation of furnishing the best grade of white oak in the world.
Little attention has been given this valuable species either in horticultural or forestal planting. This no doubt is due in a great measure to the slow growth of the tree. It should be used more for shade tree, ornamental and roadside tree planting. There are good reasons why white oak should be much used in reforestation. The cheapest and most successful method of propagating white oak is to plant the seed in the places where the trees are desired to grow. This is best done by planting the acorns as soon as they fall or are mature. The best results will be obtained if the nuts are planted with the small end down, and covered about an inch deep with earth. If the ground is a hard clay soil and the small end of the nut is placed down a half inch of earth on the nut is sufficient. Rodents often destroy the nuts, and if this danger is apprehended it is best to poison the rodents or to stratify the seed, or grow seedlings and plant them when they are one year old. In forestal planting it is suggested that the planting be 4×4 feet.
The white oak is quite variable in the lobing of the leaves, and in size and shape of the fruit, and in the length of its peduncle. The variable lobing of the leaves has lead several authors to describe varieties based on this character. The latest is that of Sargent[32] who describes: "The trees with leaves less deeply divided, with broad rounded lobes and usually smaller generally sessile fruit," as Quercus alba variety latiloba.
Quercus alba × Muhlenbérgii (× Quercus Deami Trelease). This rare hybrid was discovered in a woods about 3 miles northwest of Bluffton Indiana by L. A. Williamson and his son E. B. Williamson in 1904.[33]
The tree is still standing and in 1918 bore a heavy crop of seed. A liberal quantity was sent for propagation to the Arnold Arboretum, New York Botanical Gardens, and Missouri Botanical Gardens. The Arboretum succeeded in germinating several seed. The New York Gardens succeeded in getting 5 seedlings. The Missouri Gardens failed to get any to germinate. About a gallon of seeds was planted in the Clark County State forest nursery and all failed.
2. Quercus bícolor Willdenow. Swamp White Oak. [Plate 41.] Large trees; leaves on petioles 5-20 mm. long, 8-18 cm. long, obovate, wedge-shaped or narrowly rounded at base, rounded or pointed at the apex, margins coarsely divided with rounded or blunt teeth or somewhat pinnatifid, primary venation beneath somewhat regular, but usually some of the veins end in a sinus of the margin, both surfaces hairy at first, becoming smooth above and remaining velvety pubescent beneath; the upper surface of the leaf a bronze or dark green and the under surface grayish due to the dense tomentum, which in some instances becomes sparse and short, in which case the under surface is a light green; acorns usually in pairs on stalks 2-7 cm. long; nuts ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long, enclosed for 1/3-1/2 their length in the cup; scales of cup acute to very long acuminate, scurvy pubescent and frequently tuberculate; kernel sweetish.