Cherrybark Oak
By Susan Camp
Friends often ask me where I get ideas for gardening columns. Some topics arise from random articles I read on the internet, and the subjects of many columns relate to successes and failures we have experienced in our years of gardening. The best topics come from suggestions by friends and colleagues, who either have a specific question, or have knowledge or expertise in an area.
Last week, I received an email from Lisa Deaton, Area Forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry. When I hear from Lisa, I know I am going to read some interesting suggestions.
Lisa has emailed me information for columns on the emerald ash borer and the spotted lanternfly. She also suggested that I write about how to maintain a fire safe landscape and easy access to property by emergency vehicles.
This time, Lisa mentioned cherrybark oaks and live oaks. I know a little about live oaks, but cherrybark oak was a name I had not heard. Lisa noted that cherrybark is a fast-growing shoreline tree that grows tall and straight.
Cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda) was formerly classified as a variety of southern oak (Quercus falcata), and you may see it listed as Q. falcata subsp. pagodifolia in some sources. It gets its common name from the resemblance of the mature bark to that of the black cherry (Prunus serotina). The gray bark of the young oak is smooth, soon developing narrow, scaly ridges that darken with age and become rough.
Cherrybark oak is native to the southeastern United States. It is found in coastal regions from New Jersey to eastern Texas, except for Florida and parts of Georgia, and in the Mississippi Valley up to southern Illinois.
The tree is the fastest growing of the red oak family and reaches a height of 100 to 130 feet at maturity. Mature trunk diameter is 3 to 5 feet. Cherrybark oak is among the largest of the red oaks in the southeast. A cherrybark oak can live for 300 years.
Its massive size means that cherrybark oak needs plenty of room to grow and spread its branches. The tree grows best in full sun in loamy, well-drained, acidic bottomland soil along streams and rivers. It is intolerant of shade and competition from other trees. It must grow alone or maintain the dominant position in a stand of trees. It is fire-resistant.
The tall, straight trunk branches into a broad, rounded crown, making cherrybark oak an excellent shade tree. The glossy, dark green leaves grow in clusters from the branch tips. Leaves are 5 to 8 inches long. Each leaf is divided into 5 to 11 pointed lobes. The leaf shape resembles a many-tiered pagoda. Cherrybark oak is monoecious. Yellow-green male catkins and small, green female flowers are borne on the same tree. Acorns appear after about 25 years. The orange-brown acorns are ½ inch long, with 1/3 of their length covered by a scaly cap. They mature in 2 years.
Cherrybark oak acorns provide food for many species, including the gray squirrel, blue jay, and wild turkey. Other heavy feeders include redheaded and red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, raccoons, white-tailed deer, and black bears.
The cherrybark oak also supports numerous varieties of moths and butterflies, including Imperial Moth larvae and several species of Hairstreaks and Duskywings. Various species of beetles, bugs, and other insects feed on cherrybark oak.
The reddish-brown wood is heavy, strong, and coarse-grained. It is used extensively for interior finishing, veneer, cabinetry, and general construction.
Cherrybark oak is subject to oak wilt and several fungal diseases. Leaf blister and Hispidus canker both infect cherrybark oak, and heart rot occurs in trees planted in poor sites.
Insect pests include borers like the carpenterworm, red oak borer, oak clearwing borer, and living-beech borer, among other species of insects that infest oak trees.
Find more information on this magnificent oak in the Virginia Tech Dendrology Fact Sheet “Cherrybark Oak”; North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox entry “Quercus pagoda”; and NRCS Plant Guide “Cherrybark Oak.”
November 19, 2020