Photo: Dan Keck, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Chinquapin Oak

Quercus muehlenbergii

Also called chinkapin oak, yellow chestnut oak, Quercus muhlenbergii, Quercus prinoides var. acuminata.

The white oak of limestone bluffs and glades, at home in alkaline soil, with glossy chestnut-like leaves and sweet acorns that wildlife and people eat.

Drought tolerantWildlife valueEdibleStreet treeWinter interest

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 40–60 ft
USDA zones: 3–8
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Dry uplands and rocky ground
Native range: 32 states and the District of Columbia, north to Minnesota, south to Florida and west to New Mexico
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Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia
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Chinquapin oak is the white oak of limestone, found on rocky bluffs, glades and well-drained slopes where the soil is near neutral or alkaline. Its glossy, coarsely toothed leaves recall those of the chinquapin, a small chestnut, which gives the name. It is the tree-sized kin of the dwarf chinquapin oak we also grow, and some botanists have counted the two as one species. Dwarf chinquapin oak stays a shrub that spreads into colonies and bears within a few years, while chinquapin oak grows into a single-trunked tree that keeps to limestone. It can line a street, and in winter its pale gray bark and branches stand out. Grow it as a shade tree on limy or rocky ground, where most white oaks struggle.

Size, growth and what to expect

Chinquapin oak's pace is rated anywhere from slow to fast, so our growth estimator takes the middle, about a foot and a half a year. Expect 40 to 60 feet, with a broad, rounded crown 50 to 70 feet wide. Forest trees reach 60 to 80 feet, and on exceptional sites in the lower Ohio and Wabash valleys a few have reached 160 feet.

It flowers from April to early June as the leaves open, and the acorns ripen the same year, in September or October. A tree may take up to 30 years to bear its first acorns, and good crops come at long intervals. The acorns are about three quarters of an inch long, chestnut brown to nearly black, and half inside a thin cup. They are sweet, and squirrels, chipmunks, deer, black bears, turkeys, woodpeckers and blue jays eat them. People can eat them roasted.

It grows wild from western Vermont west to Iowa and eastern Kansas, and south to central Texas and northwestern Florida. Outlying stands grow in the mountains of southeastern New Mexico and northeastern Mexico.

How to grow Chinquapin Oak

Chinquapin oak wants full sun and a soil that drains, from loam and clay to thin, rocky ground. Unlike most white oaks it does well in alkaline soil, at a pH of about 6.5 to 8, and once rooted it takes drought. Set trees 50 feet apart, and keep each one 35 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. A long taproot makes it hard to move once grown, so plant it young. Plant from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Chinquapin oak acorns sprout soon after they fall and do not keep. 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 and rabbits browse young oaks, and rabbits can girdle small stems, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first three years. Keep one leader while the tree is young, and prune only in the dormant season.

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 they root before winter. Oak wilt can kill it, usually within 2 to 4 years, so prune only in the dormant season, when the beetles that carry the fungus are not about. Spongy moth caterpillars and oakworms feed on the leaves, and weevils and moth larvae ruin many acorns.

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

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