| Family | Scientific Name | Common Name | Habitat | Distribution | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fagaceae | Quercus ×drummondii | Drummond Post Oak | Upland dry oak and oak-pine savannas, open oak or oak-pine woodlands, and forest margins over deep sands, gravels, or (less often) clays. | Nc. to e. Texas, w. Louisiana. | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus ×nothospecies 1 | Sandsheet Live Oak | Sandsheet prairies and maritime hammocks, forming mottes. | S. Texas coast and s. Texas sandsheet (mostly Aransas Co. southward). | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus ×sternbergii | Sternberg's Oak | Dry woodlands, scrub woodlands, and forests over chalk, limestone, and calcareous clays. | C. Texas to Oklahoma, where Q. buckleyi and Q. shumardii come into contact along a narrow zone spanning the Balcones and White Rock escarpments and adjacent areas. | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus acerifolia | Maple-leaf Oak | Glades and dry ridge-tops, calcareous glades, calcareous woodlands. | Apparently endemic to Arkansas. |  (c) Witsell, Theo - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus acutissima | Sawtooth Oak | Commonly cultivated as a suburban street tree and also widely planted in ‘wildlife food plots’, rarely naturalizing. | Native of Japan. This species has been a popular recommendation for ‘wildlife plantings’ in the recent past, and entire stands can be encountered in relatively remote areas, planted by federal and state land management agencies; why ‘wildlife’ species in our area need more oak trees is somewhat mystifying! Spreading from plantings in Knoxville, Tennessee (D. Estes, pers. comm., 2007). Reported as naturalizing in New Jersey (Schmidt 2023). |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus alba | White Oak, Chêne blanc ((fr) | Mesic to xeric forests. | Maine west to Minnesota, south to Panhandle Florida and e. Texas. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus arkansana | Arkansas Oak | Dry bluffs. | Sw. and wc. Georgia and Panhandle Florida west in a fragmented distribution to sw. Arkansas and e. Texas. |  (c) Marcum, Paul |
| Fagaceae | Quercus austrina | Bluff Oak | River bluffs, mesic hammocks, dry hammocks, natural levees of brownwater rivers, over mafic rocks, on shell or calcareous sediments. | Essentially a Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: e. South Carolina south to n. Florida and west to Mississippi. Previous reports from North Carolina are based on misidentifications of Q. lyrata, and previous reports from sw. Arkansas are based on misidentifications of Q. durandii (R. Lance, pers.comm. 2024). |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus bicolor | Swamp White Oak | Bottomland swamps and wet forests with calcareous sediments, upland depression swamp forests over mafic rocks such as gabbro or diabase. | Maine, Ontario and Minnesota, south to North Carolina, South Carolina (Nelson 1993), Tennessee, n. Alabama, Mississippi, and s. Missouri. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus boyntonii | Boynton Oak | Dry forests. | Ne. Alabama and (possibly) Texas. |  (c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus buckleyi | Buckley's Oak | Woodlands and forests over calcareous rocks. | Oklahoma south to sc. Texas. |  (c) Campos, Aidan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus cerris | Turkish Oak, "European Turkey Oak" | Suburban woodlands. | Native of c. and se. Europe and w. Asia. |  (c) Danielson, Erik |
| Fagaceae | Quercus chapmanii | Chapman Oak | Dry pinelands, longleaf sandhills, scrubby flatwoods, Florida scrub (more abundant often on white sands). | A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. South Carolina south to s. Florida, west to sw. Alabama. | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus coccinea | Scarlet Oak | Xeric upland forests. | Centered in the Appalachians, from s. Maine south to c. Alabama, but ranging west to Mississippi, ne. Arkansas (Crowleys Ridge), s. Illinois, and s. Michigan. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus durandii var. breviloba | Bigelow's Oak, Scalybark Oak | Limestone outcrops, rocky areas; calcareous prairies. | S. Oklahoma and c. Texas south to Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas). |  (c) Campos, Aidan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus durandii var. durandii | Durand's Oak, Bastard Oak, Durand's White Oak | Calcareous bluffs, glades, prairies, ravines, hardwood flatwoods, bottomland forests. | Se. South Carolina south to Florida Panhandle, west to e. Texas and sw. Arkansas. |  (c) Diamond, Alvin - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus ellipsoidalis | Northern Pin Oak, Hill's Oak | Dry to mesic sandy, acidic, upland forests or slopes. | Ontario west to e. North Dakota, south to n. Ohio, n. Indiana, n. Illinois, and n. Missouri; disjunct in Carter County, Missouri. This species is distributed primarily in the upper midwestern US. Confirmed from one county in our area (Carter County, Missouri; J. Thomas 2631), which apparently is an escape from trees planted at a nearby Forest Service office (J. Thomas, pers. comm., 2022). |  (c) Danielson, Erik |
| Fagaceae | Quercus falcata | Spanish Oak, Southern Red Oak, Chêne rouge (frc) | Upland forests, usually xeric or submesic, but occasionally in mesic situations. | Widespread in se. North America, north to e. Oklahoma, s. Missouri, s. Illinois, s. Indiana, s. Ohio, West Virginia, se. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and reported (apparently without specimen documentation) from Long Island, New York. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus fusiformis | Plateau Oak, Plateau Live Oak, Encino | Dry sands, rocky areas (often calcareous), scrub; also planted eastwards of its native distribution (as in AR), and sometimes weakly naturalizing near those plantings. | E. and s. Oklahoma south through Texas to Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz). |  (c) Campos, Aidan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus geminata | Sand Live Oak | Xeric sandhills (northward restricted to areas very near the coast), Florida scrub (especially yellow sands), coastal dry hammocks. | A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. North Carolina south to s. Florida, and west to s. Mississippi. The alleged occurrence of Q. geminata as far north as se. Virginia is apparently based on ambiguous specimens that are only Q. virginiana (the so-called var. maritima). |  (c) Keim, Mary - CC-BY-NC-SA, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus georgiana | Georgia Oak | Dry slopes, ridges, and bluffs, mainly over granite and quartzite. | Sc. North Carolina south and west through Georgia to c. Alabama; the North Carolina population discovered by David Campbell in 2010 (pers.comm., specimens at NCU and UNCC). |  (c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus glauca | Japanese Evergreen Oak | Suburban woodlands. | Native of China, Japan, se. Asia, and s. Asia. Reported as aggressively establishing near plantings at Kalmia Gardens, Coker College, Darlington County, South Carolina. |  (c) Hardin, J.W. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus havardii | Havard Oak | Sc. Kansas south through w. Oklahoma to nc. and wc. Texas and e. New Mexico. | ||
| Fagaceae | Quercus hemisphaerica | Sand Laurel Oak, Darlington Oak | Longleaf pine sandhills, dry hammocks, and other dry, sandy soils, a component of maritime forests with Q. virginiana, and widely planted as a street tree in most parts of our region. | Essentially a Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. Virginia south to c. Florida and west to s. Texas, north uncommonly in the interior to nc. Alabama, n. Mississippi, and s. Arkansas. |  © Scott Ward |
| Fagaceae | Quercus ilicifolia | Bear Oak, Scrub Oak | Xeric soils in ridges in the Mountains and monadnocks in the upper Piedmont, pine-oak / heath woodlands, shale barrens, other dry and acidic sites. | Primarily Appalachian: s. Maine south to w. Virginia, w. North Carolina, and e. Kentucky. In North Carolina this scrubby oak is rare and probably declining because of fire suppression (Barden 1985), though recent ice storms have opened the tree canopy at several of its North Carolina sites. The reported occurrence of Q. ilicifolia in Kentucky at the Devil's Teatable, Floyd County (Clark et al. 1997) is now considered a false report based on aberrant material of Quercus velutina (T. Littlefield, pers.comm., 2024). |  (c) Danielson, Erik |
| Fagaceae | Quercus imbricaria | Shingle Oak | Rich soils of upper floodplains of rivers and creeks, often at the base of the slope into the upland, also on lower slopes, upland depression swamps, and in drier forests over diabase, limestone, or other calcareous or mafic claypan soils, rarely extending to 5100 feet elevation. | Primarily midwestern, ranging from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, n. Ohio, s. Michigan, n. Illinois, and c. Iowa, south to e. Virginia, nc. and w. North Carolina, sc. Tennessee, Louisiana, and ne. Texas. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus incana | Bluejack Oak, Sandjack, High-ground Willow Oak | Sandhills, primarily in somewhat loamier textured, submesic soils, inland from the Coastal Plain on coarse sandy alluvium or upland ridges over quartzite or other acidic rocks. | Primarily a species of the Southeastern Coastal Plain, but rarely extending inland into the Piedmont (especially on coarse sandy alluvium): se. Virginia south to c. peninsular Florida and west to c. Texas, sw. Arkansas, and se. Oklahoma. |  (c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY |
| Fagaceae | Quercus inopina | Florida Scrub Oak | Florida scrub (white sands, especially), longleaf pine sandhills. | Florida peninsula, north to St. Johns County. |  (c) Keim, Mary - CC-BY-NC-SA, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus laceyi | Dry calcareous woodlands and canyons. | Edwards Plateau and trans-Pecos of Texas, entering our region along the Balcones Escarpment. |  © Bruce Sorrie | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus laevis | Turkey Oak | Longleaf pine sandhills, primarily in very xeric soils of deep sandy deposits (Carolina bay rims, old beach dunes, early Cenozoic deposits of the Fall-line Sandhills), or inland from the Coastal Plain on dry ridges and slopes over quartzite or other acidic rock types. | Essentially a Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. Virginia south to s. Florida and west to e. Louisiana. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus laurifolia | Laurel Oak | Mesic to seasonally flooded soils of floodplains, also (rarely) mesic slopes and swamps in maritime forests. | A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. Virginia south to s. Florida and west to e. Texas and s. Arkansas. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus lyrata | Overcup Oak | Seasonally rather deeply and frequently flooded soils of floodplains of the Coastal Plain, less commonly in seasonally flooded swamps in Triassic basins in the lower Piedmont, and rarely in upland depression swamps of the Piedmont (developed over clays weathered from mafic rocks) and Coastal Plain. Of our oaks, Q. lyrata tolerates the wettest habitats, both in terms of depth and duration of flooding. | Primarily a species of the Southeastern Coastal Plain: Delaware south to Panhandle Florida, west to e. Texas and se. Oklahoma, north in the inland to w. Tennessee, s. Indiana, s. Illinois, and se. Missouri. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus macrocarpa var. macrocarpa | Bur Oak, Mossycup Oak | Rich bottomland forests, sometimes in drier forests, woodlands, oak savannas, and prairie edges, and then usually over limestone or other calcareous rocks. | New Brunswick and Québec west to s. Manitoba, south to nw. Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus margaretiae | Sand Post Oak, Margaret's Oak | Longleaf pine sandhills, typically in slightly loamy or clayey soils, not usual in the deepest and most xeric sands; outside of the distribution of Pinus palustris, in deep sandy, loamy, or rocky sites; also dry bluff forests. | Primarily a species of the Southeastern Coastal Plain: se. Virginia south to Florida and west to c. Texas and Oklahoma. |  (c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY |
| Fagaceae | Quercus marilandica var. ashei | Western Blackjack Oak | Xeric ridgetops, glades, dry prairies and cross-timber woodlands westward. | S. Missouri (?) and s. Kansas south to c. Arkansas, e. Texas, and sc. Texas, especially on the Edwards Plateau (Hunt 1990). |  (c) Witsell, Theo - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus marilandica var. marilandica | Blackjack Oak | Upland forests and woodlands, usually on periodically droughty soils, as over shrink-swell clays, sandstones, deep sands, sands with clay lenses, and shallow soils over acidic bedrock. | New York (Long Island), New Jersey, se. Pennsylvania, w. Virginia, s. Ohio, s. Indiana, c. Illinois, s. Iowa, and se. Nebraska south to s. Georgia, Panhandle Florida, and sc. Texas (west to the Prairie border). There are historical accounts of the existence of prairies or barrens in the vicinity of Charlotte in the late eighteenth century, known as the "the blackjack lands". These areas were described as open and prairie-like, until the early nineteenth century, when they became dominated by dense forests of blackjack oak. The previously open condition was almost certainly maintained by fire, perhaps set by the Waxhaw Indians. Blackjack oak has long been considered an indicator of ‘poor’ soil (from an agricultural perspective), as in Guthrie (1820), who states in his discussion of North Carolina, "the Black Jack land is generally poor, … and is avoided by farmers, as unproductive". |  (c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY |
| Fagaceae | Quercus michauxii | Basket Oak, Swamp Chestnut Oak, Cow Oak, Chêne vache (frc) | Bottomland forests, especially in fertile soils of upper terraces where flooded only infrequently and for short periods, upland depression ponds, sometimes on moist lower slopes. | New Jersey south to n. peninsular Florida and west to e. Texas and se. Oklahoma, north in the interior to s. Illinois and s. Indiana. |  (c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus minima | Dwarf Live Oak; Runner Oak | Florida dry prairies, dry to wet pine flatwoods, coastal fringe sandhills, pine rocklands. | Se. North Carolina (New Hanover County) south to s. Florida, west to s. Mississippi. |  © Scott Ward |
| Fagaceae | Quercus montana | Rock Chestnut Oak, Mountain Oak | Xeric forests of ridges and slopes, shale barrens, occasionally in mesic situations especially where rocky. | Primarily Appalachian but broadly distributed in e. North America: s. Maine, New York, Michigan, s. UN, s. Illinois, and se. Missouri (Smith & Parker 2005) south to c. Georgia, c. Alabama, ne. Mississippi (and Louisiana?). |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus muehlenbergii | Yellow Oak, Chinquapin Oak | Slopes and bluffs, on soils derived from calcareous or mafic rocks. | S. New England and Ontario west to Wisconsin, se. Minnesota, and Iowa, south to nw. Florida, Texas, and n. Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas). |  (c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus myrsinifolia | Chinese Evergreen Oak, Bamboo-leaf Oak, Chinese Ring-cupped Oak | Disturbed areas, naturalizing near rare plantings. | Native of China. Reported naturalizing at several sites in Georgia Piedmont by Zomlefer et al. (2018). |  (c) KOIKE, Takashi - CC0 |
| Fagaceae | Quercus myrtifolia | Myrtle Oak | Longleaf pine sandhills, Florida scrub (more commonly on yellow sands), oak scrub, dry flatwoods, coastal dunes. | A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. South Carolina south to s. Florida, west to se. Mississippi. Often a dominant on xeric yellow sands in c. Florida, where when fire-suppressed, can form dominant scrubby thickets. |  (c) Keim, Mary - CC-BY-NC-SA, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus nigra | Water Oak, Paddle Oak, Chêne gris (frc) | Bottomland forests, especially on levees or second terraces where flooded infrequently and for short periods, less commonly on mesic slopes, but also now widely distributed and common as a "weed tree" in upland situations where it was once precluded by the historical fire regime. | Primarily a species of the Southeastern Coastal Plain: s. New Jersey south to s. Florida and west to e. Texas and se. Oklahoma, north in the interior to se. Tennessee, c. Tennessee, w. and sc. Kentucky (Clark et al. 2005), se. Missouri, and e. Oklahoma. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus oglethorpensis | Oglethorpe Oak | Bottomland forests, upland oak flats over clays (Iredell and Enon soils). | Widely scattered from nc. South Carolina, to adjacent ec. And c. Georgia, Alabama (Sorrie pers. comm. 2002), c. Mississippi, and ne. Louisiana. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus pagoda | Cherrybark Oak, Swamp Spanish Oak, Pagoda oak | Bottomland forests, especially on second terraces, also in mesic to dry-mesic upland sites, especially where somewhat to very base-rich. | E. and c. Virginia south to nw. Florida and west to se. Texas and north in the interior to e. Tennessee, s. Illinois, and s. Indiana. |  (c) Goldman, Douglas - CC-BY |
| Fagaceae | Quercus palustris | Pin Oak | Hardwood flatwoods, bottomland forests, swamps, sinkhole ponds, sloughs, wet prairies, upland sag ponds; also widely planted as a street tree in towns and cities. | Massachusetts and New York west to se. Iowa and e. Kansas, south to c. North Carolina, nw. Georgia, sc. Tennessee, n. Arkansas, and e. Oklahoma. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus phellos | Willow Oak, 'Pin Oak' | Bottomland forests, especially on natural levees and second terraces, also in upland depression swamps developed on clay soils and in upland clay hardpan situations, weedy and successional on slopes and upland sites as a "weed tree" following disturbance, and widely planted as a street tree in towns and cities. | Primarily a species of the Southeastern Coastal Plain: New York (Long Island), s. New Jersey, and se. Pennsylvania south to s. Georgia and Panhandle Florida, west to e. Texas and se. Oklahoma, north in the interior to e. Tennessee, s. Kentucky, w. Kentucky, s. Illinois, and se. Missouri, and e. Oklahoma. |  (c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY |
| Fagaceae | Quercus prinoides | Dwarf Chinquapin Oak | Xeric upland glades, barrens, and woodlands, on clay soils derived from mafic, ultramafic, or calcareous rocks or in sandy acidic soils, generally in sites which naturally burned rather frequently. | Massachusetts and s. Michigan south to North Carolina, Panhandle Florida (L. Anderson, pers.comm., 2021), Oklahoma, and Texas. |  (c) Fleming, Gary P. |
| Fagaceae | Quercus pumila | Running Oak | Mesic pine savannas, especially on loamy soils in the Middle Coastal Plain, pine rocklands. | Se. North Carolina south to s. Florida and west to s. Mississippi. |  (c) Horn, Jay |
| Fagaceae | Quercus robur | English Oak | Rarely cultivated in our area; sometimes persisting or escaping in ne. United States, south at least to s. PA (Rhoads & Klein 1993; Rhoads & Block 2007). | Native of Europe. |  (c) Pogacnik, Shaun - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus rubra var. borealis | Gray Oak | Forests on ridges, slopes, and coves, in the Southern Appalachians mostly at over 1000 meters elevation. | Fairly widespread in ne. North America south to Pennsylvania, and in the Appalachians to w. North Carolina, nw. South Carolina, and n. Georgia. |  (c) Weakley, Alan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus rubra var. rubra | Red Oak | Moist to fairly dry forests of slopes, coves, and ravines, below 1000 meters elevation. | Widespread in e. North America, south to e. Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. |  (c) askalotl - CC0 |
| Fagaceae | Quercus shumardii | Shumard Oak | Moist and fertile soils of bottomlands and moist slopes, also in xeric sites over calcareous rocks (such as limestone). | S. Ontario, w. New York, sc. Pennsylvania, west through Ohio, s. Michigan, Indiana, s. Illinois, Missouri, and e. Kansas south to n. peninsular Florida and Texas. |  (c) Campos, Aidan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus similis | Swamp Post Oak, Delta Oak | Hardwood flatwoods and bottomland hardwood forests, especially over calcareous or subcalcareous substrates. | South Carolina south to Georgia and Panhandle Florida (Leon County), west to e. Texas; disjunct in c. Tennessee. See Hughes & Annis (2024) for documentation for Florida (Leon Co.). |  (c) Weakley, Alan |
| Fagaceae | Quercus species 1 | Glades and dry ridge-tops, calcareous glades, calcareous woodlands. | Interior Highlands of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma; disjunct in limestone areas in c. Tennessee, and e. Kentucky, e. Tennessee, nw. Georgia, and ne. Alabama. |  (c) Estes, Dwayne - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus stellata | Post Oak, Iron Oak | Upland forests and woodlands, especially in clay or rocky soils and in communities at least formerly exposed to fire. | Se. Massachusetts, s. New York, s. Pennsylvania, s. Ohio, s. Indiana, s. Iowa, and e. Kansas south to n. peninsular Florida and c. and se. Texas. In Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, post oak is one of the trees that forms the Prairie boundary. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus suber | Cork Oak | Native of Mediterranean sw. Europe and ne. Africa. |  (c) Faccenda, Kevin - CC-BY | |
| Fagaceae | Quercus texana | Nuttall Oak, Texas Red Oak | Bottomland hardwood forests, hardwood flatwoods, swamps, also now widely planted well east of its native distribution. | Alabama, Tennessee, w. Kentucky (Clark et al. 2005), s. Illinois, se. Missouri, south and west to e. Texas. |  (c) Pyne, Milo - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG |
| Fagaceae | Quercus velutina | Black Oak, Quercitron | Upland forests and woodlands, especially in fairly xeric and sandy soils. | Maine west to Minnesota and Nebraska, south to Panhandle Florida and Texas. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |
| Fagaceae | Quercus virginiana | Live Oak, Encino | Locally common to abundant in maritime forests and maritime scrub on barrier islands, more rarely inland (though regularly on the mainland from se. NC south, and extending substantially inland from s. SC south), sometimes in dry, fire-maintained habitats more usually occupied by Q. geminata, also planted (especially in the outer Coastal Plain). | Se. Virginia south to s. Florida and west to Texas. Villaseñor (2016) listed Q. virginiana as also fairly widespread in Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz), but this is presumably based on what would now be called Q. fusiformis. |  (c) Bradley, Keith |