Native trees for the Ozarks: Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma

Which native trees suit Ozark glades, chert hills and river bottoms, how zones run in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, when to plant, and the pests to expect.

On the Ozarks’ thin soil over limestone and dolomite, plant chinquapin oak and American smoketree. Over chert and sandstone, plant post oak and blackjack oak. The oak and hickory woods of the slopes take white oak, black hickory and flowering dogwood. Bur oak, Shumard oak and pecan suit the river bottoms. Westward, toward the prairie and Oklahoma’s Cross Timbers, post oak shares the ground with wild plums. Plant in fall, or in late winter and spring for bare-root stock. Keep black and scarlet oaks off dry ridges, where drought and borers killed red oaks across hundreds of thousands of acres from 1999.

Open rocky glade of dry grass with one young red cedar, wooded Ozark hills in early fall color behind — A glade in the Hercules Glades Wilderness, Missouri, on October 11, 2009. Without fire, eastern red cedar spreads over glades like this one and shades out their grasses. Photo: Semipaw, CC BY 3.0 (source)

The plateaus, the mountains and the rock beneath

The Ozarks are an old, raised plain of bedrock that streams have cut into rugged hills, bluffs and thin, stony soil. They divide into the Salem and Springfield plateaus, the Boston Mountains and the St. Francois Mountains. The Springfield Plateau lies on limestone and chert, and the Boston Mountains of northern Arkansas reach 2,576 feet in the Buffalo River’s watershed. Water dissolving limestone and dolomite has left caves, springs and sinkholes, and Missouri alone has more than 7,000 caves.

South of the Arkansas River Valley, the Ouachitas run in long east-west ridges of folded and faulted rock, from central Arkansas into southeastern Oklahoma. The Delta of eastern Arkansas belongs with the Gulf Coast guide. Northern Missouri, on glacial till and loess, once held large patches of savanna, ground more like that of the Great Lakes states.

Zones and when to plant

The zones

On the 2023 USDA map, the three states run from zone 5b on Missouri’s Iowa line to 8b on Arkansas’s Louisiana line:

State	Zones on the 2023 map	This guide’s ground
Missouri	5b to 8a	6a to 7a in the Ozarks
Oklahoma	6b to 8a	7a to 8a in the east
Arkansas	7a to 8b	7a to 8a in the highlands

Missouri’s Ozarks are mostly 6b, with patches of 6a and a band of 7a along the Arkansas line. In Arkansas the Ozarks and Boston Mountains are 7a and 7b, and the Ouachitas 7b and 8a. The ZIP code lookup gives a ZIP code’s half zone.

When to plant

The states’ extension services split on the season:

Extension service	When to plant	Why
University of Missouri	September to the end of October	Roots grow before the soil turns cold
University of Arkansas	November, while the trees are dormant	Roots grow before the leaves need water
Oklahoma State University	Early fall for potted trees, mid-February to mid-April for bare-root stock	Fall roots settle before summer heat

A tree set out after the soil has cooled waits for spring:

“However, later planting will produce little if any new root growth until the following spring, negating a major advantage of fall planting.” (University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management, Fall Planting Benefits Trees and Shrubs)

The planting-window tool turns frost dates into fall and spring windows, here for a bare-root sapling in zone 6 in Missouri. Blue Whale Trees ships live plants from February to May and from October to November, while they are dormant.

Glades and thin rocky ground

A glade is a hot, dry opening of thin soil and bare rock in the Ozark woods, usually on a south- or west-facing slope. Its plants are more like a prairie’s than a desert’s:

“Often described as desert-like, glades actually share more plant species with our tallgrass prairies.” (Missouri Department of Conservation, Glades)

Fire once kept glades open. After settlement ended the fires, eastern red cedar overtook many of them, and restoration now cuts the cedar and burns. We grow eastern red cedar for windbreaks and screens, not for a glade.

Glades on limestone and dolomite have neutral or alkaline soil. Glades on chert, sandstone or igneous rock have acid soil. For the thin, rocky ground at a glade’s wooded edge:

Chinquapin oak, the white oak of limestone and alkaline soil. Zones 3 to 8, 40 to 60 feet.
American smoketree, wild in Missouri on dolomite glades along the White River, with orange and red fall leaves. Zones 4 to 8, 20 to 30 feet.
Post oak, slow and drought-resistant, best planted young, since it transplants poorly. Zones 5 to 9, 35 to 50 feet.
Blackjack oak, a red oak of acid soil over sandstone, chert or igneous rock. Zones 6 to 9, 20 to 40 feet.
Ozark chinquapin, the Ozarks’ own chestnut, cut to the ground by blight since the 1960s, as chinquapin or chestnut explains. Zones 5 to 8, 15 to 30 feet.
Fragrant sumac, a low shrub of glades and ledges whose roots hold a rocky slope. Zones 3 to 9, 2 to 6 feet.
Rusty blackhaw, a small viburnum of cedar glades whose leaves turn deep red in fall. Zones 5 to 9, 10 to 20 feet.
Carolina buckthorn, a thornless shrub of cedar glades whose berries ripen red, then black. Zones 5 to 9, 10 to 20 feet.

Chert hills and the oak and hickory woods

On dry south- and west-facing slopes of shallow, rocky soil, open woodlands of 30- to 60-foot trees stand over grass and sedge. Before settlement much of these hills was open woodland or savanna, and controlled burns now restore it. Shortleaf pine covered vast tracts until logging, and most of that ground grew back as oak and hickory. We do not grow shortleaf pine. On the acid chert of the ridges and slopes:

White oak, the oak for mid-slopes, slower and longer-lived than black or scarlet oak. Zones 3 to 9, 50 to 80 feet.
Black hickory, a hickory taken as a sign of poor, rocky, acid soil. Zones 5 to 9, 30 to 80 feet.
Mockernut hickory, a hickory of dry uplands whose nuts squirrels prefer. Zones 4 to 9, 60 to 80 feet.
Flowering dogwood, the understory tree of these woods, for dappled shade. Zones 5 to 9, 15 to 30 feet.
Downy serviceberry, first to bloom in the woods and first to fruit in summer. Zones 4 to 9, 15 to 25 feet.
Farkleberry, the tree of the blueberry genus, its black berries hanging into winter. Zones 6 to 10, 10 to 25 feet.
Deerberry, the blueberry of dry oak and pine woods, with open white bells. Zones 5 to 9, 5 to 15 feet.
Hillside blueberry, a low wild blueberry of dry, rocky hillsides that sprouts back after fire. Zones 5 to 9, 1 to 3 feet.

River bottoms and gravel bars

Ozark rivers such as the Current and the Eleven Point run clear and cool over chert gravel, many fed by springs. On the Buffalo, high water moves gravel into bars below tall bluffs.

Clear, still river with a bar of pale gravel and cobbles in front, wooded banks and a rock bluff behind — Gravel on the Love Hensley bar of the Buffalo National River, Arkansas, on July 26, 2012. High water moves the river's gravel into bars below its bluffs. Photo: National Park Service, Public domain (source)

We do not grow sycamore, eastern cottonwood or silver maple, big trees of the bottoms. For the banks and bottoms, which flood often:

Bur oak, the great oak of river bottoms and the prairie edge. Zones 3 to 8, 60 to 80 feet.
Shumard oak, a big red oak of moist ground near streams, little yellowed by alkaline soil. Zones 5 to 9, 50 to 80 feet.
Pecan, from northern seed that ripens nuts in short seasons. Plant two. Zones 5 to 9, 70 to 100 feet.
River birch, a fast birch planted in streamside buffers to hold the bank. Zones 3 to 9, 40 to 70 feet.
Ozark witch hazel, the shrub of Ozark gravel bars, with red, orange or yellow flowers from January. Zones 3 to 8, 6 to 10 feet.
Witch hazel, the common witch hazel, scattered in Missouri’s eastern Ozarks, yellow in November and December. Zones 3 to 8, 12 to 20 feet.
Pawpaw, the understory tree of rich bottoms, with the largest native fruit. Plant two. Zones 5 to 9, 15 to 30 feet.
Spicebush, for shaded stream banks, and in place of bush honeysuckle. Zones 4 to 9, 6 to 12 feet.

The prairie border and the Cross Timbers

West of the hills the woods thin into prairie. In Oklahoma’s Cross Timbers, the band of small oaks between forest and prairie, post oak grows in pure stands and with blackjack oak. Some stands are oak savanna, grassland kept open by fire, and wild plums form thickets along the edges. For full sun at the prairie’s edge:

American persimmon, a pioneer of old fields and fencerows that takes drought, clay and flooding. Zones 4 to 9, 35 to 60 feet.
Chickasaw plum, a thorny plum that suckers into thickets on prairies, pastures and roadsides. Zones 5 to 9, 4 to 20 feet.
American plum, the hardiest native plum, whose thickets slow wind erosion. Zones 3 to 8, 15 to 25 feet.
Mexican plum, a single-trunked plum of glade edges and stream banks that does not sucker. Zones 5 to 8, 10 to 35 feet.
Hortulan plum, a small plum tree of stream banks and prairie edges that rarely suckers. Zones 5 to 7, 20 to 30 feet.
Leadplant, a deep-rooted prairie shrub that fixes nitrogen. Zones 2 to 8, 1 to 3 feet.
New Jersey tea, a knee-high shrub of dry, rocky ground whose roots fix nitrogen. Zones 4 to 8, 2 to 3 feet.

Small wild plum tree in full white bloom on bare branches against a background of brown, leafless brush — Chickasaw plum in flower in Faulkner County, Arkansas, on March 8, 2020. In Missouri it grows mostly south of the Missouri River, on prairies, pastures and roadsides. Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)

Plum thickets make a shelterbelt, and native hedges, screens and windbreaks gives the spacing.

Pests, disease and deer

Oak decline and the red oak borer

In 1999, after two years of severe drought, red oaks began dying across the highlands of Arkansas and Missouri, amid an unprecedented red oak borer outbreak.

“Red oak borer attacks were noted only on red oak species.” (USDA Forest Service, Oak Decline and Red Oak Borer in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas and Missouri, 2004)

A third dry year made it worse, and Forest Service surveys found up to 300,000 acres severely hit on the Ozark National Forest. Black oak and scarlet oak on shallow, rocky ridges and south- and west-facing slopes suffered most. We do not grow scarlet oak. On that ground favor long-lived, drought-tolerant trees such as white oak and post oak, and keep any one species to a quarter of the trees.

Post oak decline

Post oak now has a decline of its own. Seen for years in southern Missouri, it has crept into Oklahoma and Arkansas, where it was confirmed in the northeast in 2025. Some trees tested positive for the fungus behind bur oak blight, so plant post oak among other oaks.

Oak wilt, ash borer and invaders

Oak wilt kills a red oak within a year, a white oak more slowly. Beetles carry it to fresh wounds in spring, so do not prune or wound oaks from mid-March through June.

Emerald ash borer reached Missouri in 2008, Arkansas in 2014 and Oklahoma in 2016. It attacks every native ash, but blue ash survives it at far higher rates than green or white ash.

Callery pear, the species behind the Bradford pear, spreads from yards into old fields, and Missouri’s legislature passed a ban on its sale in 2025. Bush honeysuckle leafs out early and stays green late, shading out the spring flowers of the woods. Native replacements for burning bush and Bradford pear lists what to plant instead.

Deer and rabbits browse young oaks, so tube or cage each sapling for its first three years. Protecting trees from animals has the hardware.

Where to start

Your state’s natives: Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma each have a list.
A tree for a dry, rocky spot: the tree finder is set here to zone 6, a medium tree, full sun, dry ground and wildlife.
Distance from the house: the site check tests a post oak 25 feet from a wall, in zone 6, full sun and dry ground.
The first summer: the watering calculator gives the water for a bare-root sapling in fast-draining soil.

Common questions

What trees grow best in the Ozarks?

Chinquapin oak and American smoketree grow best on limestone and dolomite, and post oak and blackjack oak on chert and sandstone. Bur oak, Shumard oak and pecan suit the river bottoms.

What hardiness zone are the Ozarks in?

On the 2023 USDA map, Missouri’s Ozarks are mostly 6b, with 6a in patches and 7a along the Arkansas line. Arkansas’s Ozarks and Boston Mountains are 7a and 7b.

When is the best time to plant trees in Missouri?

Plant in fall, from September to the end of October, while the soil is warm enough for roots to grow. A bare-root sapling goes in only while dormant.

What trees grow in thin, rocky soil?

Post oak, blackjack oak and black hickory take thin soil over acid rock. Chinquapin oak and American smoketree take it over limestone and dolomite.

Why are oaks dying in the Ozarks?

Drought weakens red oaks on thin ridges, and borers and fungi finish them. Post oak now has a decline of its own, spreading from southern Missouri into Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Map Downloads: USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map: the state maps of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, each state’s zone range, and the zones of the Missouri Ozarks, the Arkansas highlands and eastern Oklahoma.
General Geology: Arkansas Geological Survey: the highlands of northwestern Arkansas, the Ouachitas’ east-west ridges of folded and faulted rock, and the Arkansas River Valley between them and the Ozarks.
Environmental setting and hydrologic conditions: U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 1158, Water Quality of the Ozark Plateaus, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, 1992-95: the Salem and Springfield plateaus, the Boston Mountains and the St. Francois Mountains.
Climate and Geology: National Park Service, Buffalo National River: the rock of the Springfield Plateau, the Boston Mountains’ 2,576 feet, and the bluffs and gravel bars the river makes.
Glades: Missouri Department of Conservation, with its pages on upland forests and woodlands, bottomland forests, caves and karst, Ozark streams, savannas, oak wilt and oak decline, the Missouri Conservationist’s Oak Decline and the Future of Missouri’s Forests of July 2002, and the field guide’s post oak, blackjack oak, fragrant sumac, American smoke tree, Ozark witch-hazel, wild plum, emerald ash borer, Callery pear and bush honeysuckles: the quotation, the glades, their soils and their cedar, the woods by slope, shortleaf pine, the streams and bottoms, the savannas, oak decline and oak wilt, the borer in Missouri, and the invaders.
Fall Planting Benefits Trees and Shrubs: University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management, Missouri Environment and Garden (David Trinklein, 2021): the quotation, and fall planting from September to the end of October.
Fall Tree Care and Planting Tips: University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, with its page on emerald ash borer: planting in November while the trees are dormant, and the borer’s arrival in Arkansas in 2014.
Planting Trees and Shrubs: Oklahoma State University Extension, HLA-6414 (David Hillock and Mike Schnelle, 2017), the Internet Archive’s copy of June 3, 2026: early fall for potted trees, and spring, from mid-February to mid-April, for bare-root stock.
Oak Decline and Red Oak Borer in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas and Missouri: USDA Forest Service (Starkey, Oliveria, Mangini and Mielke, 2004), with the Silvics of North America chapters on post oak, chinkapin oak and eastern redcedar and the Ouachita National Forest’s page on the area: the quotation, the red oak deaths from 1999, chinquapin oak on alkaline soil, post oak in the Cross Timbers, the shrubs of cedar glades, and the Ouachitas in Oklahoma.
Arkansas Forest Health Highlights 2025: Arkansas Department of Agriculture Forestry Division, in the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Health Highlights, with the Oklahoma report for 2025: post oak decline’s spread and the fungus found in it, and Oklahoma’s first emerald ash borer in October 2016.

Native trees for the Ozarks: Missouri, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma