Note from the Author: New plant, and a delayed post!
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| This picture is why I say you should gather a few leaves and draw a consensus about shape between them. On this one braNch they're elliptical but on the leaves in the background (lower left), they're spatulate shaped. |
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| Note the alternate branching pattern. |
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| Mature water Oak bark is pretty distinctive |
Common Name: Water Oak
Other Common Names: Black Oak, North American Barren Oak, North American Black Oak, Possum Oak.
Botanical Family: Fagaceae (The Beech Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Quercus nigra
Description & Habitat: Water Oak is commonly found in Cumberland county North Carolina, and in our areas is effectively an evergreen. It is native to North American and is a fast growing medium sized tree at maturity. It often grows to a height of 50 to 80 feet tall with a canopy that can be up to 70 feet in width. Amongst members of the Oak genus it is generally considered to have softer wood than others and it has a noticeably shorter life span. Your average Water Oak often lives 30 to 50 years though in the urban environment that may be even shorter because of the usual impacts of soil compaction, damage and fungal intrusion. The native region in which you can find Water Oaks is the central or eastern United States, and they prefer forests, flood plains and beside rivers, streams or sloped areas with soil that is on the dry side. You can also commonly find them in the Coastal Plains and Piedmont regions of North Carolina. As you might expect Water Oaks prefer rich moderate to wet soils with a acidic pH and full sun exposure. Saplings will tolerate less than this but will grow to effectively create the aforementioned exposure environment and enrich their soil with dropped leaves. You can identify a Water Oak easily by its uniquely shaped leaves which are roughly spatulate or spoon shaped. I personally think they often look more like a vertically stretched version of the club from a deck of playing cards. There is a fair amount of differing leaf morphology on a given tree so you may have to collect or examine a bunch of leaves to reach a leaf shape consensus. The big problem with this tree is its weak branch architecture when compared to other Oak Species. The branch architecture lends to breakage in high winds or ice events which makes it less than ideal for planting near structures. It is however good for planting in open spaces or near bodies of water. Water Oaks are also a host plant for the Larvae of at least seven native species of Moths and Butterflies. In colder climates where Water Oak is deciduous its leaves turn a nice golden yellow color in the fall. As a final note for this section, it has been recorded that Water Oak can produce hybrids with Southern Red Oak (Q. falcata), Bluejack Oak (Q. incana), Turkey Oak (Q. laevis), Blackjack Oak (Q. marilandica), Willow Oak (Q. phellos), Shumard Oak (Q. shumardii), and Black Oak (Q. velutina).
Special Toxicity Note: The tannin contained in the leaves and acorns of this tree aren’t toxic in general however they can cause nausea and cause iron absorption problems in people. The leaves from this tree are toxic to most livestock with the exception of Pigs.
When & What to Harvest:
Water Oaks are interesting when it comes to the Oak family because their primary use since the 17th century is as firewood. The leaves of this oak are particularly useful in the compost pile for making leaf mold and they absolutely pulverize when run over with a mower using a mulching blade. The Acorns can be eaten but often they are on the small side and can pose a slip hazard where they fall on hard surfaces as they range from the size of a medium ball bearing to that of a marble (1/2-1”). This means you would have to collect a lot of them just to extract a modest amount of nut meat to use for flour. Also the problem of tannin is still there, you’re still going to have to leech it out using boiling or soaking methods. In North Carolina generally speaking Water Oak will have acorns from September to November, but weather conditions might cause them to be plus/minus a month in timing. What you want to do here is to gather several pounds of Water Oak acorns with the expectation that you for every three to four pounds of unprocessed acorns that you gather will produce about a pound of flour in this case. The difficulty of this can vary on the number of trees and if or if not it is a masting year. Masting years are when trees produce so many extra seeds that things that might eat them cannot possibly collect them all. So tannin extraction or leeching is a pretty simple process you can either boil them or let them soak. Both methods prefer that you shell the acorns first; boiling is the faster method and all you have to do is shell your acorns then boil them until the water turns dark. Dump the water and replace it with fresh water and boil again, keep doing this until the water is clear you can add Baking Soda to accelerate this process. The alternative is that you can place the bag in a stream so it’s constantly wet and wait a t least a day possibly several until the nuts are no longer bitter. From here you can dry them, crush them finely to make Acorn Flour, or crush them coarsely so the chunks are of even size and make something akin to Grits. Or you can roast them and eat them as a trail mix sort of snack. There are tons of recipes for making breads with Acorns, failing that there are several companies that make Acorn Flour so you can work out recipes without all the grunt work. As a final note for harvesting, Water Oak can be a host for Lions Mane Mushrooms in the wild.
Related Plants: Black Jack Oak (Q. marilandica) is visually very similar.
Recipe:
Additional Information: (If applicable)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_nigra
Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:
-There are a few sites that sell Water Oak, but it would be cheaper to just find one and collect the acorns as there are tons of them in the area.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
Fall Produce:
Garlic, softneck
Soup Kits, Parsnip
Soup Kits, Turnip
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Parsnips
Red Potatoes
Turnips
Sweet Potatoes
Plants Coming Soon:
TBA, new stuff in spring
How to stay in Contact with Us!
All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (-): [On Winter Haitus]
Meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is January 24th (Weather Permitting) at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.
