Swamp Chestnut Oak

Description

Botanical Name:   Quercus michauxii

Common Name:    Swamp Chestnut Oak, Basket Oak, Cow Oak

Description:    Swamp Chestnut Oak is just one of Florida’s wonderful native oak trees. It is a white oak.

This large, deciduous oak tree matures at 60 – 120 feet tall x 20 – 30 feet wide. It makes a wonderful shade tree. Its chestnut-like leaves, up to 9 inches long, turn a  yellow to bronze color in the fall before dropping. It produces large, 1-1.25 inch, low-tannin acorns. It does take 20 – 25 years for it to start producing the acorns. It has a moderate growth rate. It flowers in the spring.

Native habitat is in moist areas near swamp edges and second bottoms of floodplains. It tolerates wet soils and occassional flooding. May also grow in uplands on shallow soils over limestone. Likes to be planted in clay, sandy, or loamy acidic soils. It does adapt to moderately dry areas. Plant in sun to part sun areas of your nativescape.

As with most oak trees, Swamp Chestnut Oak is a high-value wildlife tree for caterpillars, birds, bees, and mammals for its leaves and acorns. It is not deer resistant. It is a host plant for brown duskywing butterfly ( Erynnis horatius ), gray hairstreak ( Strymon melinus ), and white-M hairstreak (P arrhasius m-albu m).

Low to no tolerance for salt or brackish water. Low to no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray.

This plant in 3-gallon containers is 1.5 – 4 feet tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 4 – 6 feet tall.

Plant Lore:  The wood of this oak is used for many things:  wheels, veneer, boards, fence posts, tight cooperage, baskets, fuel, fenceposts, and furniture.

Florida Hardiness Zones:  8 – 9