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OAKS IN THE EASTERN FOREST
According
to the “Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Trees,”
34 species of tree-sized oaks grow in eastern
forests, 13 in the white oak group and 21
belonging to the red (or black) oaks. In the
Southern Appalachian Mountain regions in
Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee,
Georgia and Alabama alone, oak forest types
cover an estimated 17.4 million acres, according
to a Southern Appalachian Man and Biosphere
Program (SAMAB) Southern Appalachian Terrestrial
Technical Report. That makes them “by far the
most abundant forest type group in the region,”
says USFS plant pathologist Steve Oak.
A good general rule of thumb to distinguish
members of the two oak groups is by the shape of
their leaves: those with rounded lobes belong to
the white oak group; those with pointed tips
fall into the reds. Chestnut oak, with its
wavy-edged leaves (looking like a wavy-edged
version of the leaf of a chestnut), forms “a
distinctive subdivision” of the white oaks, the
Peterson guide says. Crosses produce hybrids,
blurring distinctions between one species and
another. According to maps in the Peterson
guide, our region includes the following white
oaks: White, Post, Chinquapin and Chestnut. In
the red oak group, we have Scarlet, Pin,
Northern Red, Black, Southern Red, Bear and
Blackjack Oak. The guide says that oaks provide
about half the nation’s annual lumber
production. They are “slow-growing, long-lived,
and relatively disease- and insect-resistant”
and their acorns are consumed “by nearly all
herbivorous birds and mammals.” Some of the
animals in our region that feed on acorns
include ruffed grouse, bobwhite, wild turkey,
mourning dove, white-tailed deer, black bear,
fox, raccoon, possums, and squirrel.
Additionally, many songbirds browse the
oak canopy for caterpillars that feed on oak
leaves; deer and rabbits nibble oak twigs.
—EH
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