Photo: Richard Webb, CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Shingle Oak

Quercus imbricaria

A red oak with long, glossy leaves that have no lobes at all, turning russet in fall and clinging to the branches through winter.

Hedge or screenRareFall colorWildlife valueDrought tolerantStreet treeSalt tolerant

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 40–60 ft
USDA zones: 4–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes, dry uplands, old fields and edges
Native range: 24 states and the District of Columbia, north to Michigan, south to Louisiana and west to Kansas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
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Shingle oak is a red oak that is hard to recognize as an oak, because of its unusual leaf. Early settlers split the wood into roof shingles, and the Latin name means overlapping like tiles. It is common in the Ohio River Valley, but New Jersey lists it as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Georgia and Louisiana. Clip a row of them into a tall hedge or windbreak for winter screening, or grow one as a shade tree on a street or lawn.

Size, growth and what to expect

Shingle oak grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Expect 40 to 60 feet with an equal spread. Wild trees normally reach 65 feet and occasionally 105.

It flowers in April and May, and the acorns ripen in September and October of their second year. The seed manual puts the first crops at about 25 years, with good ones every 2 to 4 years. The acorns are nearly round, about half an inch long, in a thin cup. Blue jays carry them up to a mile and tuck them into grass litter, and the ones left behind let shingle oak spread onto old pastures.

It grows wild from Iowa to Louisiana, east to North Carolina and north to Massachusetts. It favors moderately dry to moist slopes and uplands, and turns up now and then in ravines and bottoms.

How to grow Shingle Oak

Shingle oak wants full sun or light shade and a well-drained soil, from sand to clay. It takes acid or alkaline ground, dry spells once it is rooted, and a spell of wet soil. It stands up to city conditions, some salt and a nearby black walnut. Set trees 40 feet apart, and keep each one 30 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Although it has a taproot, it moves more easily than many oaks. 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 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 30 to 60 days first.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer seldom browse it, but a tube or cage for the first three years keeps deer and rabbits off a young sapling.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a red oak it can catch oak wilt, often fatally, so prune only in the dormant season, to avoid the beetles that spread it. It is among the oaks most prone to bacterial leaf scorch. Scale insects and the two-lined chestnut borer also attack it, and the galls of mites and insects do no harm.

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

Sources (11)