White Oak is one of Maryland's most common large hardwoods and is found throughout the state in a variety of woodland habitats. Of the nine oak species in the white oak group (as contrasted with the red oak group) in Maryland, White Oak is by far the most common (Choukas-Bradley, 2012). Indeed, White Oak is the most common of all the oak species in the state (Maryland DNR, 2016).
City of Alexandria, Virginia, Botanist/Ecologist Rod Simmons, as quoted in Choukas-Bradley (2012), notes that "[m]ost of the mature White Oaks we see in yards and along old neighborhoods and sections of cities are remnants of native forested areas dominated by upland oaks that were present when the houses and streets were built." Rod adds that White Oak "can tolerate the successive periods of drought and heat associated with climate change, but it cannot tolerate significant water table drops and loss of groundwater infiltration around its root zone that result from the now-constant practices of digging, trenching, paving, over-building, burying underground utilities, etc., that are the hallmarks of our over-developed and highly fragmented suburbs and neighbor-hoods.”
The leaves of White Oak are distinctively multi-lobed with rounded tips. The bark is shaggy upon maturity.
Look for White Oak in most forest types throughout Maryland.
White Oak was established as the State Tree of Maryland in 1941. The famous Wye Oak, in the town of Wye Mills, Talbot County, Maryland, was the largest White Oak in the United States from 1941 until it was felled by a storm in 2002. Wye Oak State Park preserves the site where this revered tree stood for more than 400 years.
White Oak is a host tree to many kinds of insects.
Among butterflies, it has been recorded as a larval host plant for Banded Hairstreak and White-M Hairstreak.
Host plant for various moth species including Acrocercops albinatella, Gregarious Oak Leafminer Moth, Phyllonorycter argentifimbriella, Phyllonorycter basistrigella, Phyllonorycter fitchella, Phyllonorycter hagenii, Lesser Maple Leaf Blotch Miner Moth, Red-fringed Emerald , Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth, Scalloped Sack-bearer Moth, Girlfriend Underwing Moth, Confused Woodgrain Moth, American Dagger Moth, Exiled Dagger Moth, Banded Tussock Moth, Fluid Arches Moth, Green-dusted Zale Moth, Maple Webworm Moth, Luna Moth, Orange-tipped Oakworm Moth, Spiny Oakworm Moth, Polyphemus Moth, Io Moth, Cecropia Moth, Waved Sphinx, Oblique-banded Leafroller Moth, Filbertworm Moth, and Three-lined Leafroller Moth (Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants).
Frequently hosts the Wool Sower gall in spring.
There are 779 records in the project database.
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