Swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii): 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 michauxii Nutt. in USDA PLANTS, beech family
Other names	Basket oak and cow oak (Silvics)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in the lower 48 states
Size, Silvics	A medium-size tree that may reach 30.5 m (100 ft) at maturity on better sites; 18 to 24 m (60 to 80 ft) tall with trunk diameters of 61 to 91 cm (24 to 36 in) are normal on average sites
Form, Silvics	The trunk is often free of branches for 15 to 18 m (50 to 60 ft), and stout branches ascend at sharp angles to form a very strong crown
Roots, Silvics	The handbook says no information is available
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	63 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range and sites

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 2, 1990) says swamp chestnut oak extends along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from New Jersey and extreme eastern Pennsylvania south to north Florida and west to east Texas, and north in the Mississippi River Valley to extreme southeast Oklahoma, Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southern Indiana, and locally to southeast Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. It names the tree as known for the baskets made from its wood and for the acorns that cows eat, and describes it as one of the important timber trees of the South, growing on moist and wet loamy soils of bottom lands, along streams and borders of swamps in mixed hardwoods. The handbook adds that it is found on well-drained silty clay and loamy terraces and colluvial sites.

Flowers and acorns

Silvics says swamp chestnut oak is monoecious, with flowers appearing about the same time as the leaves, from April to May. The acorn is nearly stalkless and may be solitary or paired. The cup is broad based, covers about one-third of the acorn and has hairy scales free to the base. The acorn is 1.9 to 3.2 cm (0.75 to 1.25 in) wide and 2.5 to 3.8 cm (1 to 1.5 in) long, and ripens and falls in September and October.

Stand volume

The handbook says the growing stock volume for all diameter classes on commercial forest land in north Georgia was 5.97 million cubic m (211 million cubic feet), and that where the species grows with other hardwoods, a total volume above 112 cubic m per hectare (8,000 board feet per acre) is classed as a heavy sawtimber stand. A heavy pole stand is described as more than 432 stems per hectare (175 stems per acre) of 13 to 28 cm (5 to 11 in) diameter.

Wood

Silvics says the high quality wood is commercially useful for lumber in all kinds of construction, agricultural implements, cooperage, fence posts, baskets and fuel. The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) lists swamp chestnut oak among the principal species of the white oak group; that group is described on the white oak page. Table 5-3b has a separate swamp chestnut oak row, shown below.

Wood Handbook Table 5-3b	Specific gravity	Modulus of rupture (lbf per square inch)	Side hardness (lbf)
Green	0.60	8,500	1,110
At 12% moisture content	0.67	13,900	1,240

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) says numerous fungi and insects damage swamp chestnut oak.

Fungi. Wood-decaying species of Fomes, Polyporus and Stereum. Oak leaf blister (Taphrina caerulescens) and oak anthracnose (Gnomonia veneta) are called sporadic in occurrence.
Acorn weevils. Curculio pardalis, Conotrachelus naso and C. posticatus consume the seed.
Defoliators. June beetles, the orangestriped oakworm, fall and spring cankerworms, the forest tent caterpillar, the yellownecked caterpillar, the variable oakleaf caterpillar and the redhumped oakworm.
Borers. The red oak borer in cambium and outer sapwood, carpenterworms in heartwood and sapwood, and the Columbian timber beetle in the sapwood attack healthy trees according to the handbook. Those attacking weakened trees include the twolined chestnut borer in the cambium (see twolined chestnut borer) and the tilehorned prionus in roots; the oak timberworm attacks dying trees.
Scale and galls. The golden oak scale kills reproduction and tops in older trees, and the gouty oak gall and horned oak gall injure small limbs. The basswood leafminer attacks the leaves.

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.