Photo: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nuttall Oak

Quercus texana

Also called Nuttall's oak, red river oak, striped oak, Quercus nuttallii.

A fast bottomland red oak for heavy, wet clay, with acorns that feed ducks, deer and turkeys and leaves that turn deep red late in fall.

Tolerates wet soilWildlife valueFall colorBears youngRareWinter interestStreet treeDrought tolerant

Type: Large tree
Mature height: 50–80 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests and stream banks
Native range: 10 states, north to Illinois, south to Louisiana, east to Kentucky and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas
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Nuttall oak is a red oak of the lower Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coastal Plain. It typically grows on clay flats covered with 3 to 8 inches of water through the winter. Older books call it Quercus nuttallii, and for many years the name Quercus texana was wrongly used for the Texas red oak. Louisiana counts it among its best acorn producers, and its crops rarely fail. The cherrybark oak we grow does best on loamy, well-drained bottomland, while Nuttall oak takes the heavy clay. Streets suit it as well, since it adapts readily to city conditions. Plant it where water stands in winter, on a low field edge, a pond bank or a wet corner of a large lawn.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows fast, about 2.75 feet a year in our growth estimator. Young trees average 13.4 feet of height growth in 5 years. Expect 50 to 80 feet with a crown 40 to 65 feet wide.

It flowers in March and April as the leaves unfold, and the acorns ripen in September and October of their second year. Trees 5 years old have borne acorns, and good crops come from about 20, every 3 or 4 years. The acorns are three quarters of an inch to an inch long, a third to half in a thin cup. Many hang on into January, feeding squirrels through winter floods, and deer, turkeys and ducks eat them too.

It grows wild in the Mississippi Valley from far western Kentucky and southern Illinois to Louisiana, and along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Texas. Illinois lists it as endangered and Kentucky as threatened, at the northern edge of its range.

How to grow Nuttall Oak

Nuttall oak wants full sun and an acid soil. It does best in rich, moist loam and adapts to heavy clay. It takes winter flooding, yet it also grows well on higher ground, and it tolerates drought once established. In Missouri, the Department of Conservation's seedling nursery says it probably should not be planted outside the Bootheel. Set trees 40 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. The seedlings develop strong taproots, so plant them young. Plant dormant saplings 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. Red oak acorns need a winter before they sprout. Sow them in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer browse it, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first three years against deer and rabbits. Keep the mulch thin at the trunk so voles do not nest there, and prune only to keep one leader.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a red oak it can catch oak wilt, which may kill it north of 35 degrees latitude, so prune only in the dormant season, to avoid the beetles that spread it. Acorn weevils spoil many acorns, and the carpenterworm and other borers damage the trunk. Anthracnose and leaf spots strip some of the leaves in some years.

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

Sources (12)