Carolina Nature

Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of North Carolina

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

Plantae>Magnoliophyta>Magnoliopsida>Fagales>Fagaceae>Quercus phellos L.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

Willow Oak is one of the most familiar large trees in North Carolina. Abundantly planted; fairly common in the wild in bottomland forests in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont.

Durham Co., NC 5/3/08.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

Similar to Water Oak (Q. nigra), which has clubbed leaves, and the semi-evergreen Laurel Oak (Q. laurifolia) and Sand Laurel Oak (Q. hemisphaerica) of the Coastal Plain.

Falls Lake, Granville Co., NC 4/27/08.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos) flowers.

Flowers appear in mid-spring. The male flowers are in long catkins.

Granville Co., NC 4/26/09.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

The leaves are narrowly lanceolate like those of Black Willow, but are bristle-tipped and lack teeth.

Falls Lake, Granville Co., NC 4/27/08.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

The bark is smooth on young trees and smaller branches, becoming shallowly ridged on larger trees. Bark of a medium-sized tree in Chapel Hill, NC.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)

Bark of a mature tree, Greenville, NC.

Oak hybrid (Quercus phellos x falcata)

Hybrids of different species in the red oak group are not too unusual. This is an apparent hybrid Q. falcata x Q. phellos at Mason Farm in Chapel Hill, NC.

Oak hybrid (Quercus phellos x nigra)

Here's an apparent hybrid Q. nigra x Q. phellos in Duke Forest, Durham Co., NC.

This possible hybrid between Q. phellos and Q. velutina strongly resembles Shingle Oak (Q. imbricaria), but lacks that species's uniformly soft-pubesence on the underside. This tree is in Raleigh, NC, 2 counties from the nearest known range of Shingle Oak in Virginia. There is some pubescence on the underside of the leaves, but it easily rubs off, just like that on Black Oak (Q. velutina) leaves.

Photo by Joseph Covington.

Some of the leaves of this tree have irregular lobes.

Raleigh, NC 6/11/06.

Acorn from the same tree. Photo by Joseph Covington.

Oak hybrid (Quercus phellos)

Another hybrid of some sort.

Durham Co., NC 5/3/08.

More information:
NCSU Fact Sheet
Trees of Alabama and the Southeast
Silvics Manual
Virginia Tech Dendrology

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