Quercus Coccinea Tree Information


Images of Quercus Coccinea:



Quercus Coccinea grows in the following 25 states and provinces:

Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia


Information about Quercus Coccinea:


More information about Quercus Coccinea may be found here.

The Quercus Coccinea is commonly known as the Black Oak, Scarlet Oak as well as Spanish Oak.

The currently accepted scientific name of scarlet oak, a member of the beech family (Fagaceae), is Quercus coccinea Muenchh. . Scarlet oak has been placed within the the subgenus Erythrobalanus, or red (black) oak group . A rarely recognized variety, Quercus coccinea var. tuberculata Sarg., is distinguished by thickened tuberculate scales of the cup . Scarlet oak hybridizes with the following species : x Q. ilicifolia (bear oak): Q. X robbinsii Trel. x Q. velutina (black oak): Q. X fontana Laughlin x Q. palustris (pin oak)

Scarlet oak is distributed from southwestern Maine west to New York, Ohio, southern Michigan and Indiana; south to southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri, and central Mississippi; east to southern Alabama and southwestern Georgia; and north along the western edge of the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the Virginia Coast.  Scarlet oak is abundant in the Piedmont and in the Appalachian Mountains .

Scarlet oak is a common component of many eastern and central dry upland forests.  Nearly pure stands of scarlet oak grow in areas of the Ozark Plateau in Missouri .  A chestnut oak (Quercus prinus)-scarlet oak variant of the chestnut oak SAF cover type is found on upper slopes and ridges in the central Appalachians.  Scarlet oak is also prominent in several variants of the white oak (Q. alba)-black oak (Q. velutina)-northern red oak (Q. rubra) SAF cover type . At middle and lower elevations in the Appalachian Mountains, scarlet oak is often a major component of pine (Pinus spp.) forests and pine heaths .  Scarlet oak constitutes an important component of the subcanopy and canopy layers of Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens) forest . The following published classifications list scarlet oak as a codominant species: Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains Old growth forests within the Piedmont of South Carolina

Some of the information provided here is attributed to:Carey, Jennifer H. 1992. Quercus coccinea. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). , available at the USDA Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) website