Shumard Oak

My co-worker Andrew and I spent a couple of days last week in Essex County and were treated to spending some time in bottomlands and swamps with good stands of Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii).  This rare oak is a species of Special Concern both provincially and federally.  Morsink and Pratt (1984) estimated there to be about 500 scattered Shumard oak in Essex County.  It has a strong resemblance to red oak (Quercus rubra) and black oak (Quercus velutina).

The distinctive/characteristic features that I have pulled together from a number of sources include:

• the leaves are generally deeply lobed and shiny, notably more lobed than red oak
• acorn caps are shallow and the acorns fairly large
• buds are large and somewhat waxy looking
• foliage in the fall is a vibrant crimson colour and trees tend to hold the leaves longer than other oaks
• grows in clay plains, mesic to moist soils including wetlands

Red oak was certainly present at the sites we were visiting; a quick scan of the dead leaves and you could see both red and Shumard present in the leaf litter.