Water oak is a rapid growing tree. Leaves of a mature water oak are usually spatula-shaped while leaves of immature saplings can be long and narrow (see examples on plate below). Many describe the leaf as looking like a duck's foot. Q. nigra can be described as "nearly evergreen" as some green leaves will cling to the tree through the winter. Water oak has strikingly smooth bark.
1. The Silviculture of Water Oak
Steve Nix
Water oak is particularly suited for timber, fuel, wildlife habitat, and environmental forestry. It has been widely planted in southern communities as a shade tree. Its veneer has been successfully used as plywood for fruit and vegetable containers.
2. The Images of Water Oak
Forestryimages.org provides several images of parts of water oak. The tree is a hardwood and the lineal taxonomy is Magnoliopsida > Fagales > Fagaceae > Quercus nigra. Water oak is also commonly called possum oak or spotted oak.
3. The Range of Water Oak
USFS
Water oak is found along the Coastal Plain from southern New Jersey and Delaware south to southern Florida; west to eastern Texas; and north in the Mississippi Valley to southeastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and southwestern Tennessee.
4. Water Oak at Virginia Tech
Leaf: Alternate, simple, 2 to 4 inches long and extremely variable in shape (from spatulate to lanceolate), may be 0 to 5 lobed, margins may be entire or bristle-tipped, both surfaces are glabrous, but axillary tufts may be present below.Twig: Slender, red-brown; buds short, sharp-pointed, angular, red-brown, multiple at the tip.
