Oak tree seeds from around the world

Image: Wikimedia

Q2 Coast Live Oak ( Quercus Agrifolia )

Good for zones 9-10. Spreading, Evergreen tree with reddish brown to gray colored bark
and dark green spiny toothed leaves. Mature tree can reach 70 ft tall and spread to 50 ft.
wide. Native to California.

Q45 Blue Oak ( Quercus douglassi )

Spreading, deciduous tree with a rounded, dense, symmetrical crown and white-gray bark
with small brown or red scales. The oblong, deeply 3-5 lobed mid-green leaves are about
3″ long and become blue-green as they mature. Grows to 65 ft. tall and spreads to 40 ft.
Good for zones 6-9.

Q20 Valley Oak ( Quercus Lobata )

Good for zones 6-8. Slow growing, spreading, deciduous tree with deeply furrowed, gray
to brown bark. Ovate, dark green leaves to 3 inches long. Sweet, edible acorns. Mature
tree can reach 50 ft tall and spread to 45 ft. wide. Native to California.

The Valley oak (Quercus lobata) is the largest of North American oaks.
It ranges over the hot interior valleys of California. Mature specimens may attain an age of up to 600 years. This deciduous oak requires year-round access to groundwater.

Its grand stature was noted by early pioneers. Today it is an attractive addition to the California landscape.

Its thick, ridged bark is characteristic and evokes alligator hide. The Valley oak’s felt-like deeply lobed leaves assist in rapid identification.

Q35 Red Oak ( Quercus Rubra )

Good for zones 5-9. Fast growing, spreading deciduous tree with attractive gray to
grayish brown bark. Dark green leaves. Mature tree can reach 80 ft tall and spread to 70
ft. wide. Native to E. US.
The red oak is one of the most important oaks for timber production in North
America. The wood is of high value. Other related oaks are also cut and marketed as Red
Oak, although their wood is not always of as high a quality. These include black oak,
scarlet oak, pin oak, shumard oak, southern red oak and other species in the red oak
group. The red oak is widely planted and naturalized also in Central Europe.

Red oak wood grain is so open that smoke can be blown through it from end-grain to
end-grain on a flatsawn board.

A 10-year-old tree will be about 15 feet tall.

Red oak is easy to recognize by its bark, which feature bark ridges that appear to
have shiny stripes down the center. A few other oaks have bark with this kind of
appearance in the upper tree, but the red oak is the only tree with the striping all
the way down the trunk.

Q37 Southern Live Oak ( Quercus Virginia )

Very seldom do we get to offer the actual photo of the tree that seeds were collected from, but this is one of those occasions. The seeds we are offering come from this magnificent tree in Southern Mississippi.
Good for zones 8-10. Massive, spreading Evergreen tree with shallow grooved red-brown
bark and leathery, shiny dark green leaves. Mature tree can reach height of 80 ft. and
spread out to 100 ft. wide. Native to Southern US from Virginia to Florida.

Depending on the growing conditions, live oaks vary from the shrubby to large and
spreading: typical open-grown trees reach 15 meters (50 feet) in height, but may span
nearly 50 meters.

Their lower limbs often sweep down towards the ground before curving up again.
They can grow at severe angles, and Native Americans used to bend saplings over so that
they would grow at extreme angles, to serve as trail markers. They drop their leaves, and
grow new ones, within a few weeks in spring. The bark is furrowed longitudinally, and
the acorns are small, but long and tapered. Trees frequently have rounded clumps of ball
moss or thick drapings of Spanish moss, and mistletoe is often found on them.

Southern live oak can grow in moist to dry sites. They can withstand occasional floods
and hurricanes, and are resistant to salt spray and moderate soil salinity. They tend to
survive fire, because often a fire will not reach their crowns. Even if a tree is burned, its
crowns and roots usually survive the fire and sprout vigorously. Furthermore live oak
forests discourage entry of fire from adjacent communities because they provide dense
cover that discourages the growth of a flammable understory.

Although they grow best in well-drained sandy soils and loams, they will also grow
in clay. Live oaks are also surprisingly hardy. Those of southern provenance can easily be
grown in USDA zone 7 and the Oklahoma Live Oak (Quercus virginiana var. fusiformis),
having the same evergreen foliage as the Southern variety, can be grown with success in
areas as cold as zone 6. Even with significant winter leaf burn, these trees can make a
strong comeback during the growing season in more northerly areas such New Jersey,
southern Ohio, and southern Connecticut.