SCARLET OAK
(Quercus Coccinea)

The name of scarlet oak is in use in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, and Ontario; red oak is the name in North Carolina, Alabama, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota; black oak in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and Spanish oak in North Carolina.

The name is descriptive of the autumn leaves. Artists dispute among themselves whether the leaves are scarlet, red, or crimson. In their opinion a good deal of difference exists between these colors, rendering it quite incorrect to give one color the name of another. As for the artists, they are probably correct in their analysis of colors, but the general public knows the tree as scarlet oak, and it will doubtless be called by that name by most people who speak of the tree in the woods, while those who refer to the wood after it is sawed will speak of it as red oak.

The leaves of scarlet oak are rather persistent, and remain on the twigs late in the season. The brilliancy of this tree is rendered doubly conspicuous, when it is contrasted with the surrounding sombre, winter colors.

In appearance the tree is striking for its delicacy of foliage and twigs. The crown is always narrow and open, and in forest growth is compressed. The height, in good specimens, is about one hundred feet, but it often exceeds that size. In diameter it grows as large as four feet. The mature bark is dark in color and broken into broad, smooth ridges and plates, edged with red. It shows a reddish inner bark when cut and this may be relied upon to identify the tree. The leaves are four or five inches long; deeply sinused, three or four on a side; long, bristle-toothed lobes, broad at the base; acorns bitter, mature in two years; sessile, brown; cup closely drawn in at the edge.

Its range comprises the northeastern quarter of the United States. Beginning in southern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, it grows through middle New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa to eastern Nebraska. Southward it extends along the coast through Virginia and inland along the mountains to South Carolina and Georgia. The growth is abundant over most of the range, the favorite habitat being dry, gravelly uplands. It seems to be most abundant along the northern part of the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to New Jersey, and is less common in the interior, and on the prairies skirting the western margins of the eastern forests. The average size of the tree is from seventy to eighty feet high and two or three in diameter. In many regions it is much smaller, while no very large trees have been reported.

The wood is heavy, strong, hard; the layers of annual growth are strongly marked by several rows of large, open ducts; the summerwood is dense and occupies half the yearly ring; the medullary rays are much like those of red oak, though scarcely as broad. They run in straight lines radially, and show well in quarter-sawing. The color of the wood is light brown or red, the thin sapwood rather darker.

This wood is practically of the same weight as white oak; but it is rated considerably stronger and stiffer. A number of writers have listed scarlet oak low in fuel value. Theoretically, the fuel values of woods are proportionate to their weights, except that resinous woods must be compared with resinous, and non-resinous with non-resinous. In practice, however, every fireman who feeds a furnace with wood knows that different woods develop different degrees of heat, though they may weigh the same. Results are modified by various circumstances and conditions, and for that reason theory and practice are often far apart in determining how much heat a given quantity of wood is good for.

It is difficult to procure exact information regarding the uses of scarlet oak. It never goes to market under its own name. An examination of wood-using reports from a dozen states within scarlet oak’s range does not reveal a single mention of this wood for any purpose. It is certain, nevertheless, that much goes to market and that it has many important uses. It loses its identity and is bought and sold as red oak. Under the name of that wood it is manufactured into furniture, finish, agricultural implements, cars, boats, wagons and other vehicles, and many other articles. One of the most important markets for scarlet oak is in chair factories. Its grain is attractive enough to give it place as outside material, and its strength fits it for frames and other parts which must bear strain. Chair stock mills which clean up woodlots and patches of forest where scarlet oak grows in mixture with other species of oak, take all that comes, without being particular as to the exact kind of oak. Slack coopers follow much the same course. A wood strong enough to meet requirements, is generally acceptable. Scarlet oak is usually considered unsuitable for tight cooperage, on account of the large open pores of the wood, which permit leakage of liquids. It meets considerable demand in the manufacture of boxes and crates, particularly the latter.

The size and quality of logs which a tree may furnish to a sawmill is no measure of its full value. Scarlet oak is far better known as an ornamental tree than for its wood. It has been planted in this country and in Europe. Its brilliant foliage is greatly admired. No other oak equals it, and it compares favorably with sugar maple, black gum, and dogwood. It is an ornament to parks and private grounds, though the brilliancy of its foliage is seldom exhibited to as good advantage in cultivation as in the native forest where contrasts are more numerous, and nature does its work unhindered by man. The scarlet oak is not a rapid grower, and the form of the tree is not perfectly symmetrical. The spring leaves are red, the summer foliage bright, rich green, the autumn scarlet—a variety not equalled by many forest trees.

Willow Oak (Quercus phellos) is named for its leaves which look like those of willow. There is a group of such oaks with leaves similar, and they are known collectively as willow oaks. The one here described may be considered typical of the group.

This oak is apt to present rather a surprising appearance to those who have seen nothing but those oaks whose leaves are lobed or cleft. It belongs to the red oaks. Like others of this division it has a tendency to hybridize, several varieties being known. Willow oak is a denizen of the southern Atlantic and southeastern states and favors rich, moist soil, either on uplands or on bottoms, along the margins of streams or swamps. It does not go inland as far as the foothills of the ranges and is found most abundantly in the basin of the lower Mississippi. Beginning in New York, the range extends southward into Florida, along the Gulf states, touching Texas, up through Arkansas, touching Missouri and Kentucky, down through western Tennessee and southern Georgia rounding the southern end of the Appalachians.

Young trees have a slender delicate pendant appearance of twigs and foliage more typical of the willow than of oak; but in time they become more rugged, although the branching and foliage are always more delicate than is usual with oaks. The tree attains a height of eighty feet and a diameter up to four feet, but usually is about half of this. It is clothed in a smooth, brown bark, ridged only in older trees. The leaves are about five inches long and narrow in proportion, are of shiny, leathery texture, dark above and pale below. The acorns are on short stalks, solitary or in pairs, and ripen in two years, are short and rounded and in shallow cups.

The weight of willow oak is approximately the same as white oak. It is slightly stronger but less elastic. Its annual rings contain broad bands of small open ducts parallel to the thin, dark, medullary rays. The wood is reddish-brown in color, the thick sapwood darker brown. The fuel value is rated the same as white oak, but the wood contains more ash.

Willow oak is much used in the South, but usually under the name red oak. Lumbermen seldom speak of it as willow oak. The species is as highly developed in Louisiana as anywhere else, and the uses found for the wood in that state will probably be found for it wherever the tree grows in commercial quantities. A report on the manufacture of wooden commodities in Louisiana, published in 1912, listed the following uses for willow oak: Agricultural implements, balustrades, bar tops, bedsteads, bottoms for wagon beds, bridge approaches and floors, chairs, church pews, cot frames, doors, floors, frames, interior finish, molding, newel posts, pulpits, railing, screens, slack cooperage, stairwork, store fixtures, wagon axles, and other vehicle parts.

These uses coincide nearly with those of red oak, and indicate the important position occupied by willow oak in the country’s industries. Those who handle the wood complain that its seasoning qualities are poor, and that care is necessary to bring satisfactory results. It works nicely and stands well after the seasoning is accomplished.

Willow oak grows rapidly. It is doubtful if any oak in this country surpasses it. It wants damp, rich soil and a warm climate, to do its best. Some of the bottom lands in the lower Mississippi valley have produced splendid stands of willow oak, the trunks being tall and clear of limbs, and the wood sound.

The willow oak is much planted for ornamental purposes in the southern states. It manages to keep alive when planted as far north as Massachusetts, but the grace of its form is not fully developed much north of the Potomac river. It is a common street tree in the South, and its airy foliage forms a pleasing contrast with the heavy, dark-green of the magnolia.