# Swamp Laurel Oak (Quercus laurifolia)

> A fast red oak for wet southern ground, with glossy leaves that are often diamond-shaped and big acorn crops that turkeys and deer seek out.

Also called diamond-leaf oak, laurel-leaf oak, Quercus obtusa. Category: Rare & Uncommon Oaks. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-laurel-oak/

![Swamp laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia) shoot of glossy, narrow, laurel-like leaves on a dark ground](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/swamp-laurel-oak-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Bruce Kirchoff, CC BY 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AQuercus_laurifolia_%2824145073225%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Large tree
- Mature height: 40 to 80 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 10
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 10 states, north to [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), 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), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) and [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA)). Also recorded, not native, in [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD) and [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA)
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: February to March
- Fruit: Acorns, September to October
- First crop: 15 to 20 years
- Mature spread: 45 ft
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value, Street tree, Tolerates shade
- 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 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 laurel oak is a fast-growing red oak of sandy floodplains, river banks and swamp edges on the southeastern Coastal Plain. Its leaves are glossy above and pale below, often diamond-shaped with a rounded tip, and in the South many hang on until spring. It is easily confused with our laurel oak, which keeps to dry, sandy uplands and flowers about two weeks later. The two were long treated as one species, and some botanists still lump them. It grows well as a street tree. Grow it as quick shade for a damp lawn, a pond edge or a southern street.

## 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.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus laurifolia](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501055)
- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Laurel Oak, McReynolds and Hebb 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/laurel-oak)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Quercus laurifolia](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-laurifolia/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus laurifolia](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QULA3)
- [Florida Native Plant Society Plant Database: Quercus laurifolia](https://www.fnps.org/plant/quercus-laurifolia)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Quercus laurifolia](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-laurifolia/)
- [UF/IFAS Extension, ENH-707/ST549: Quercus laurifolia, Laurel Oak, Gilman and others](https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST549)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: laurel oak, Quercus laurifolia](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=350)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Quercus.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Quercus laurifolia](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/QULA3)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus laurifolia](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.129810/Quercus_laurifolia)

## 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)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Red oaks and white oaks, and where each belongs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/red-oaks-and-white-oaks/index.html.md)
- [When oaks leaf out, and why two of them never agree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/when-oaks-leaf-out/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 42 other oaks (Quercus): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=quercus)
- Under its canopy: [Florida Anise](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-anise/index.html.md), [Needle Palm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/needle-palm/index.html.md) and [Dwarf Palmetto](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-palmetto/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Swamp Laurel Oak, add ?species=swamp-laurel-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=swamp-laurel-oak&zone=6&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Swamp Laurel Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=swamp-laurel-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-laurel-oak): whether Swamp Laurel Oak can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Swamp Laurel Oak as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=swamp-laurel-oak (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Swamp Laurel 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=swamp-laurel-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 Laurel 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=swamp-laurel-oak:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Swamp Laurel 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=swamp-laurel-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 Laurel 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=swamp-laurel-oak&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Swamp Laurel 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=swamp-laurel-oak