# Sand Post Oak (Quercus margaretta)

> A compact post oak of deep coastal-plain sands, built for drought and heat.

Also called scrubby post oak, dwarf post oak. Category: Rare & Uncommon Oaks. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sand-post-oak/

![Sand post oak (Quercus margaretta) dense foliage of small lobed leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/sand-post-oak-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Bruce Kirchoff, CC BY 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quercus_Margarettae.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 40 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 9
- Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and dry uplands
- Native range: 13 states, north to [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) and [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA))
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: March to May
- Fruit: Acorns, September to November
- First crop: 20 to 30 years
- Mature spread: 40 ft
- Traits: Rare, Drought tolerant, Wildlife value, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Acorns

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Rare Oak Collection.

## Notes

Sand post oak, sometimes treated as a variety of post oak, grows on the driest sandhills and scrub of the Southeast from Virginia to Texas. It stays smaller than post oak, with rounded, lobed leaves and a gnarled habit, and shrugs off drought that kills lawn trees. We offer it for hot, sandy sites. On a sandy slope it helps hold the ground against erosion. A natural choice for a sandhill restoration or a low-water yard tree across the Southeast.

## Size, growth and what to expect

A tree of deep coastal-plain sands, sand post oak grows slowly, about a foot a year in its youth on an average site by our growth estimator's model. It is a slow-growing, sometimes scrubby tree. It generally reaches 30 to 40 feet with a dense rounded crown, and it can stay a shrub. Individual trees have reached 234 years.

The first acorns take 20 to 30 years, and in post oak proper, of which this is often treated as a variety, good crops come every 2 to 3 years. It flowers from March to May. The acorns run about a half inch to an inch long and ripen from September to November, and turkeys and other game birds, songbirds and small mammals eat them. The leaves feed the caterpillars of the imperial moth and the banded and Edward's hairstreaks. Dwarf post oak, its other name, describes its smaller stature.

It grows wild on deep sand and gravel from southeastern Virginia west to Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, south to central Texas and east to central Florida, on sandhill ridges and in scrub.

## How to grow Sand Post Oak

Sand post oak is for the hot, dry, sandy spot where lawn trees fail: a south-facing bank or deep sand. Full sun, no irrigation once established. It stays small, so 15 feet from a building is enough.

Plant a dormant sapling, bare-root or potted, between leaf fall and bud break, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper. Set the flare at ground level and backfill with the same sand you dug. Compost holds water this oak does not want. White oak acorns sprout on contact with damp ground, so sow them on arrival, an inch deep, under hardware cloth against mice.

Water deeply every two weeks the first summer, then stop; overwatering kills it faster than drought. Mulch lightly with pine straw, off the trunk. Deer browse and rabbits gnaw it, so tube or cage it until the leader is above browse height, about four years on a slow tree. Stake only if it leans.

Like other oaks, sand post oak is wind pollinated and needs pollen from another tree to set acorns, so plant two or more seedlings. The taproot goes down fast, so plant it young and never move it. Growth is slow and acorns are many years off. Oak wilt troubles red oaks far more than white oaks. Keep fill, traffic and lawn sprinklers off its roots.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Quercus margaretta](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-margaretta/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus margaretta](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUMA13)
- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: post oak](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/post-oak)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: sand post oak, Quercus margaretta](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=427)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus margarettae](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501059)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Quercus.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus margarettiae, Sand Post Oak](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.140282/Quercus_margarettiae)
- [Carolina Nature (Will Cook): Sand Post Oak, Quercus margaretta](https://www.carolinanature.com/trees/quma6.html)
- [Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages (Virginia Tech): Quercus margarettae, sand post oak](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Quercus&species=margarettae)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for dry, sandy soil: the plants of barrens and dunes, and how to grow them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-for-dry-sandy-soil/index.html.md)
- [Red oaks and white oaks, and where each belongs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/red-oaks-and-white-oaks/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for the Gulf Coast: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and East Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-the-gulf-coast/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 42 other oaks (Quercus): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=quercus)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Bluejack Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bluejack-oak/index.html.md), [Flatwoods Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/flatwoods-plum/index.html.md), [Farkleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/farkleberry/index.html.md) and [Gum Bumelia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gum-bumelia/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Sand Live Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sand-live-oak/index.html.md), [Myrtle Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/myrtle-oak/index.html.md), [Turkey Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/turkey-oak/index.html.md) and [Chapman Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chapman-oak/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Sand Post Oak, add ?species=sand-post-oak with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 6, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak&zone=6&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Sand Post Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak): whether Sand Post Oak can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Sand Post Oak as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Sand Post Oak is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Sand Post Oak needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=sand-post-oak:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Sand Post Oak where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Sand Post Oak goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=sand-post-oak&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Sand Post Oak flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=sand-post-oak