Photo: Bruce Kirchoff, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Chapman Oak

Quercus chapmanii

Also called Chapman white oak, Chapman's oak.

A small white oak of the southern coast with glossy leaves that turn red and yellow into winter, and acorns low in tannin.

Drought tolerantWildlife valueSalt tolerantFall colorWinter interest

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–25 ft
USDA zones: 7–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and the coast
Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Chapman oak belongs to the Florida scrub, the dry country of sand ridges and dunes near the coast. It carries the name of Alvan Chapman, a physician and botanist of Apalachicola, Florida, who first distinguished it in his Flora of the Southern United States. In the wild it often grows as a low shrub spreading from underground stems, but it can make a small, round-topped tree. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in South Carolina and imperiled in Georgia. Try it as a low screen on coastal sand, or let it stand alone as a small specimen tree.

Size, growth and what to expect

Chapman oak grows slowly, so our growth estimator gives it about a foot a year. In a garden expect 10 to 25 feet, and it can grow as wide as it is tall. Wild plants are mostly shrubs of 2 to 10 feet, sometimes 20, and trees reach 45 feet.

It flowers from March to May, and as in every white oak the acorns ripen the same year, in the fall. They are five eighths to three quarters of an inch long, a third to half hidden in a gray cup. Florida scrub-jays favor them because they are low in tannin, and deer, wild turkeys, raccoons and squirrels eat them too.

It grows wild near the coast from southern South Carolina to Florida and southern Alabama. It is most abundant along Florida's west coast, from Tampa Bay to Panama City.

How to grow Chapman Oak

Chapman oak wants full sun and a deep, well-drained sand, acid and poor. It needs no watering once rooted and takes salty wind near the coast, but not salt water over its roots. Set trees 15 feet apart, and keep each one 15 feet from a wall and 15 feet or more from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and deep enough for the taproot. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the sand back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. White oak acorns sprout soon after they fall. Sow them on arrival, an inch deep, under hardware cloth.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer browse young oaks, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first two years. Let it keep several stems for a screen, or train one leader for a small tree.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a white oak it ripens its acorns in a single season, and it bears them every year.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (10)