Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

The Red Oak averages 80 feet in length at maturity and usually has a stout trunk clear of branches for some distance above the ground.

There is a considerable variation in its foliage. Saplings sometimes have enormous leaves but mature trees have leaves averaging 4 to 8 inches long. A characteristic feature is that the clefs of the lobes at the deepest are well out from the midrib.

Often the size and shape of the acorn is more of a distinguishing feature than the leaves. The Red Oak acorn is about one inch long.

The bark is perpendicularly fissured into long, smooth, light gray strips giving the trunk a characteristic pillar effect. It has the straightest trunk of all the oaks. The leaves possess more lobes than the leaves of any of the other species of the black oak group. The acorns, the largest among the oaks, are semispherical with the cups extremely shallow. The buds are large and sharp pointed, but not as large as those of the black oak. They also have a few fine hairs on their scales, but are not nearly as downy as those of the Black oak.

Form and size: The red oak is the largest of the oaks and among the largest of the trees in the northern forests. It has a straight trunk, free from branches to a higher point than in the white oak. The branches are less twisted and emerge at sharper angles than do those of the white oak.

Range: It grows all over Eastern North America and reaches north farther than any of the other oaks.