Southern red oak (Quercus falcata): 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 falcata Michx. in USDA PLANTS, beech family
Other names	Spanish oak, water oak and red oak (Silvics, for the typical variety; the same chapter treats cherrybark oak as a second variety)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in the lower 48 states
Size, Silvics	A medium-size tree, usually 20 to 25 m (70 to 80 ft) tall and 60 to 90 cm (24 to 36 in) in diameter at breast height, with a long, straight trunk and a high, rounded crown in forest stands
Longevity, Silvics	Maximum age attained is about 150 years
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, volume 2, 1990) says southern red oak extends from Long Island, New York, southward in New Jersey to northern Florida, west across the Gulf States to the valley of the Brazos River in Texas, and north in eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Ohio and western West Virginia. It calls the species comparatively rare in the North Atlantic States, where it grows only near the coast. In the South Atlantic States the primary habitat is the Piedmont, with the species less frequent on the Coastal Plain and rare in the bottom lands of the Mississippi Delta.

The handbook calls southern red oak one of the more common upland southern oaks, moderately fast growing on dry, sandy or clay loam soils in mixed forests, and notes that it is often found as a street or lawn tree. The same chapter splits the species into the typical variety and cherrybark oak (Quercus falcata var. pagodifolia), saying there are enough differences to warrant separate discussions. This page covers only the typical variety.

Growth and tree weight

Silvics says there are no growth and yield data for stands of southern red oak. It does print weight findings: seventy percent of an average tree's green weight is in stem material to a 10 cm (4 in) top and thirty percent in the crown. Total-tree wood has an average specific gravity of 0.604 and an average moisture content of 74 percent, and a green weight of 66 lb per cubic foot, while wood and bark together for the whole above-ground tree average 81 lb per cubic foot. The handbook says it has no information on the rooting habit.

Wood

Silvics says the hard, strong, coarse-grained wood is used for general construction, furniture and fuel, and that wildlife depend on the acorns as food. The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) groups it in the red oak group of the Eastern states; what it says about that group is set out once on the northern red oak page. Table 5-3b has a separate southern red oak row, shown below.

Wood Handbook Table 5-3b	Specific gravity	Modulus of rupture (lbf per square inch)	Side hardness (lbf)
Green	0.52	6,900	860
At 12% moisture content	0.59	10,900	1,060

The Wood Handbook states that specific gravity is based on oven-dry weight and the volume when green or at 12% moisture content. The green weight of the wood without bark is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Diseases, insects and damage the handbook names

Silvics (1990) names these agents by the names it used.

Fire and heart rots. The handbook says southern red oak is susceptible to injury by fire because of its thin bark, and that as a result of fire scars and other injuries it is often subject to heart rots.
Cankers and rots. Cankers and rot caused by Polyporus hispidus are called common, and other common rot fungi named are Hydnum erinaceus, Polyporus sulphureus, P. obtusus and Fomes everhartii.
Oak wilt. The handbook says southern red oak is highly susceptible to oak wilt caused by Ceratocystis fagacearum, but that the disease is virtually unknown south of the 35th parallel. It reports that several Hypoxylon species colonize the trunk sapwood of wilting trees and produce a yellow decay, and says the wilt fungus is apparently unable to compete with them. The guides on oak wilt and oak wilt by state and province cover the disease.
Drought decline. Drought is identified as a cause of southern red oak decline and death along the South Carolina coast, with Hypoxylon atropunctatum partially responsible.
Leaf diseases. Leaf blister (Taphrina caerulescens) and leaf spots (Actinopelte dryina and Elsinoe quercus-falcatae), which Silvics says can severely mar the foliage.
Borers and seed pests. The hickory spiral borer and the oak stem borer damage and often kill seedlings. Acorn weevils (three species named) and the filbertworm damage acorns. Wood-borers named are Agrilus bilineatus, Corthylus columbianus and Cossula magnifica, and the handbook says the species is readily susceptible to borers and bark scarrers when trees are wounded or growing on poor sites.
Defoliators. Anisota senatoria and A. stigma, which the handbook says do considerable damage.

The guide on reporting a pest in the United States and the Canada reporting page give the offices that take sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.