Northern red oak (Quercus rubra): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Quercus rubra L., beech family
Other names	Common red oak, eastern red oak, mountain red oak and gray oak (Silvics)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Mature size, Silvics	20 to 30 m (65 to 98 ft) tall and 61 to 91 cm (24 to 36 in) in diameter in undisturbed stands on good sites
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	64 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990) calls northern red oak the only native oak extending northeast to Nova Scotia. It records a range from Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec to Ontario, and from Minnesota south to eastern Nebraska and Oklahoma, then east to Arkansas, southern Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, with outliers in Louisiana and Mississippi. It says mean annual precipitation across the range varies from 760 mm (30 in) in the northwest to 2030 mm (80 in) in the southern Appalachians.

The handbook describes a moderate to fast growing tree that is widespread in the East on a variety of soils and slopes, often forming pure stands. It lists it among the more important red oak lumber species and calls it an easily transplanted, popular shade tree with good form and dense foliage.

Size and form

Silvics says forest-grown trees develop a tall, straight, columnar trunk and large crown, while open-grown trees tend to have short trunks and spreading crowns. A photograph caption in the handbook records a mature tree at an elevation of 945 m (3,100 ft) in the southern Appalachians that is 90 cm (35 in) in diameter and 46 m (151 ft) tall. The handbook gives average diameter growth of about 5 mm (0.2 in) a year across ages, sites and stand conditions in the Central States.

Flowers and acorns

The handbook says the tree is monoecious. Male flowers hang in catkins that develop from leaf axils formed in the prior season and emerge in April or May, before or with the current leaves. Female flowers are solitary or in spikes in the axils of the current year's leaves. The fruit is an acorn, single or in clusters of two to five, partly enclosed by a scaly cup, and it takes two growing seasons to mature. Mature acorns are brown and ripen from late August to late October depending on location. Silvics names squirrels, deer, turkey, mice and voles among the animals that eat them.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) groups northern red oak with the red oak group of the Eastern states. It says the sapwood is nearly white and 2 to 5 cm (1 to 2 in) wide and the heartwood is brown with a tinge of red. It says sawn lumber of the group cannot be separated by species on wood characteristics alone, and that red oak lumber can be told from white oak by the size and arrangement of pores in the latewood and by the lack of tyloses in the pores. The open pores make the group unsuitable for tight cooperage unless barrels are lined. It describes the wood as heavy, with fairly high shrinkage on drying, and lists lumber, crossties, mine timbers, fence posts, veneer, pulpwood and fuelwood among the main cuts, with flooring, furniture, millwork, pallets and handles among the products.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.56	0.63
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	8,300	14,300
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	1,000	1,290
Moisture content of green wood, percent (Table 4-1)	80 heartwood, 69 sapwood	Not applicable

The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) lists these, using the names of its time.

Oak wilt. Ceratocystis fagacearum, which the handbook calls a potentially serious vascular disease that kills trees the same year they are infected. It says the disease spreads between trees through root grafts and over longer distances by sap-feeding beetles and small oak bark beetles.
Root and stem. Shoestring root rot (Armillaria mellea) on trees injured or weakened by fire, lightning, drought, insects or other diseases, and cankers from Strumella and Nectria species.
Leaf diseases. Anthracnose, leaf blister, powdery mildews and eastern gall rust, which the handbook says seldom do serious damage.
Borers. The carpenterworm, Columbian timber beetle, oak timberworm, red oak borer and twolined chestnut borer, which tunnel into the wood.
Defoliators. The imported gypsy moth, which the handbook calls the most destructive defoliating insect on the species, along with the variable oakleaf caterpillar, orangestriped oakworm and browntail moth. The Asiatic oak weevil is recorded as attacking seedlings.
Acorn insects. Nut weevils, gall-forming cynipids, the filbertworm and the acorn moth.

The gypsy moth is the same insect as the spongy moth. The guide on spongy moth rules by country sets out what each agency says, and reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.