Swamp Laurel Oak

Size, growth and what to expect

Swamp laurel oak grows fast, about 2.75 feet a year in our growth estimator. Expect 40 to 80 feet with a dense, rounded crown 30 to 45 feet wide. It is short-lived, maturing in about 50 years, though the tallest known tree stands 127 feet in Suffolk, Virginia.

It flowers in February and March, as the last of the old leaves fall, and the new leaves often open coppery red. The acorns, about half an inch long and dark brown to black, ripen in September and October of their second year. Large crops come nearly every year from age 15 to 20. Deer, raccoons, squirrels, wild turkeys, ducks and quail eat them, and the leaves feed hairstreak and duskywing caterpillars.

It grows wild on the Coastal Plain from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida, and west to southeastern Texas and southern Arkansas. It is most common on sandy floodplains, river banks and swamp edges, and grows best in north Florida and Georgia. NatureServe ranks it imperiled to vulnerable in Arkansas.

How to grow Swamp Laurel Oak

Swamp laurel oak takes full sun to shade and a moist, acid soil of sand, loam or clay. It grows on floodplains and swamp edges and takes wet ground, but not long months of standing water. It has little tolerance for salty wind or spray. Its trunk flares at the base and lifts pavement in narrow strips, so give it a planting strip at least 8 feet wide. Plant it 25 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 30 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them young, since the seedlings soon send down a long taproot. 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. Swamp laurel oak acorns have only a mild dormancy, and half of them sprout in spring without chilling. Sow them in fall half an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for four to twelve weeks first.

Water every week or two through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Guard young trees with a tube or cage against deer and rabbits for the first two years. Train it early to one central trunk with well-spaced limbs. Prune a little each year so you only cut small branches, since a large cut can start a column of decay many feet long.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. Swamp laurel oak belongs to the red oak group, so its acorns take two seasons to ripen. As a red oak, prune it only in the dormant season, so fresh cuts do not draw the beetles that spread oak wilt. Its wood is weak and can break in high winds, and the trunk often hollows with heart rot as it nears 50 years. Even a light ground fire can kill it. Weevils infest the acorns, and it carries the alternate stage of fusiform rust of southern pines, though the rust does the oak little harm.