# Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line (Quercus michauxii)

> Huge, sweet acorns and clean chestnut-like foliage, collected from a superior parent tree.

Also called basket oak, cow oak. Category: Superior Specimen Lines. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-chestnut-oak/

![Swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii) leaves with large rounded teeth and pale undersides beside a gray furrowed trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/swamp-chestnut-oak-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Facts

- Type: Large tree
- Mature height: 60 to 90 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests
- Native range: 19 states, north to [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), 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), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [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: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: April to May
- Fruit: Acorns, September to October
- First crop: 20 to 25 years (10 to 15 on an exceptional site)
- Mature spread: 60 ft
- Traits: Wildlife value, Edible, Tolerates wet soil, Fall color
- 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.

## Notes

Swamp chestnut oak, also called basket oak or cow oak, produces some of the largest and sweetest acorns of any eastern oak; livestock and deer eat them straight from the ground. It grows on moist bottomland but tolerates ordinary yard soil, with rich red-brown fall color and flaky, pale bark. Our seed comes from a single proven specimen selected for acorn size and form. Made for a pasture or a deer mast planting on low ground that stays damp.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Swamp chestnut oak grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth on an average site, which is the rate our growth estimator uses for it. On an average site it reaches 60 to 80 feet with a trunk 2 to 3 feet through, and 100 feet on the best ground. The crown spreads 40 to 60 feet, so give it room. Trees live 100 to 200 years. It can live up to 400 years, and the oldest tree dated by its rings reached 205. Only a tiny share of trees is ever dated this way, so older ones may exist.

The first acorns come at about 20 to 25 years, or within 10 to 15 on an exceptional site. The heaviest crops come around 40, with a good crop every 3 to 5 years. The acorns run 1 to 1½ inches long under a bowl-shaped cup that covers about a third of the nut. Deer, wild hogs, squirrels, turkeys, ducks and bears take them, and so do cattle, which is where the name cow oak comes from. It flowers in April and May as the leaves unfold, and the acorns ripen and fall in September and October.

It grows wild on the coastal plains from New Jersey to north Florida and west to east Texas, on the well-drained ridges of first bottoms that flood briefly in spring.

## How to grow Swamp Chestnut Oak

Swamp chestnut oak wants full sun and moist ground and takes a low spot that floods in spring; ordinary yard soil suits it too. It becomes a big round-headed tree, so plant it 40 feet from buildings and other large trees and clear of power lines.

Plant a dormant sapling, bare-root or potted, between leaf fall and bud break, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper, flare at grade, native soil back in, mulch off the trunk. Stake only in wind. The acorns sprout soon after they fall and will not keep dry, so sow them on arrival, 1 to 2 inches deep, under hardware cloth against mice and squirrels.

Water deeply every week or two the first summer. Deer browse young oaks to the ground, so use a five-foot tube or wire cage and remove it when the trunk fills it, in year three, and cut off any competing leader.

Like other oaks, swamp chestnut oak is wind pollinated and needs pollen from another tree to set acorns, so plant two or more seedlings. The taproot forms early, so plant it young and leave it. Seedlings of a selected parent vary; the line improves odds, not certainty. As a white oak it withstands oak wilt better than the red oaks. The first acorns are many years off.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: swamp chestnut oak](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/swamp-chestnut-oak)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Quercus michauxii](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-michauxii/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: swamp chestnut oak](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/swamp-chestnut-oak/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Quercus.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: swamp chestnut oak, Quercus michauxii](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_qumi.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus michauxii](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUMI)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus michauxii, Swamp Chestnut Oak](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.154986/Quercus_michauxii)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Quercus michauxii](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/QUMI)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus michauxii](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501061)
- [University of Florida IFAS, School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences: Campus Tree Tour, Swamp Chestnut Oak](https://ffgs.ifas.ufl.edu/tree-tour/swamp-chestnut-oak/)
- [BIEN, the Botanical Information and Ecology Network: trait data for Quercus michauxii, from Loehle 1988](https://bien.nceas.ucsb.edu/bien/)

## 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)
- [Which oak to plant: the fastest, the first to bear, the biggest acorns, and oaks for small yards, wet ground and deer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/which-oak-to-plant/index.html.md)
- [Which oak dropped this acorn? Telling the eastern oaks apart by acorn size, cap and shape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/which-oak-dropped-this-acorn/index.html.md)
- [Red oaks and white oaks, and where each belongs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/red-oaks-and-white-oaks/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: [Overcup Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/overcup-oak/index.html.md), [Water Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/water-hickory/index.html.md), [Willow Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/willow-oak/index.html.md) and [Sugarberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sugarberry/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Virginia Sweetspire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-sweetspire/index.html.md), [Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pawpaw/index.html.md) and [Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/spicebush/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Northern Red Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-red-oak/index.html.md), [Bur Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bur-oak/index.html.md), [Oglethorpe Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/oglethorpe-oak/index.html.md) and [White Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/white-oak/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line, add ?species=swamp-chestnut-oak with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=swamp-chestnut-oak&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=swamp-chestnut-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=swamp-chestnut-oak): whether Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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 Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=swamp-chestnut-oak (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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=swamp-chestnut-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 Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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=swamp-chestnut-oak:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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=swamp-chestnut-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 Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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=swamp-chestnut-oak&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line 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=swamp-chestnut-oak