# Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)

> A white oak for wet ground, with peeling bark, two-toned leaves that flash silver in the wind and acorns that hang on long, slender stalks.

Also called bicolor oak, swamp oak. Category: Classic Oaks. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-white-oak/

![Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) broad, wavy-lobed leaves on a summer branch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/swamp-white-oak-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AQuercus_bicolor_%28swamp_white_oak%29_5.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 50 to 60 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 26 states and the District of Columbia, north and west to Minnesota and south to Alabama (Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia). Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value, Edible
- Sold as: Saplings, Acorns

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Swamp white oak is the white oak of wet ground, growing along streams, on river bottoms and at the edges of swamps and lakes from New England to the upper Midwest. Its leaves are glossy dark green above and silvery white beneath, so the crown flashes pale in the wind before a summer storm. Bark on young trunks and branches peels in loose, curling flakes. Its acorns hang on slender stalks 1 to 3 inches long, a mark that sets it apart. Maine lists it as threatened. Use it as a shade tree for a low spot or a wet lawn that floods in spring, ground where most oaks struggle.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Swamp white oak grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Expect 50 to 60 feet with an equal spread, an open, irregular crown and low limbs. Forest trees reach 60 to 75 feet, rarely 100, and many live 300 years or more.

It flowers from April to June as the leaves open, and the acorns ripen the same year, falling in September and October. Trees bear from about 20 years, with good crops every 3 to 5 years. Each acorn is three quarters of an inch to an inch and a quarter long, half or more inside its cup. They are sweet, and squirrels, deer, black bears and wood ducks eat them. In one Wisconsin study they made up 27 percent of what wild ducks ate. People can eat them too, once the bitterness is leached out.

It grows wild from southwestern Maine and southern Quebec west to southeastern Minnesota, and south to Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia. It is most common and grows largest in western New York and northern Ohio.

## How to grow Swamp White Oak

Swamp white oak wants full sun and a moist, acid soil. It takes heavy clay, poor drainage and spring flooding better than most oaks, but not water that stands all year. Once rooted it also rides out a dry summer. In alkaline soil its leaves turn yellow, so keep it to ground on the acid side. Set trees 50 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. Plant 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 white oak acorns sprout soon after they fall and do not store. Sow them on arrival, an inch deep, under hardware cloth.

Water every week or two through the first two summers, since young trees can be slow to settle. Deer and rabbits browse young oaks, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first three years. Open-grown trees keep their low limbs, so raise the crown a little at a time where you need clearance, and prune only in the dormant season.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a white oak, it ripens its acorns in one season, and they root before winter. It is highly susceptible to oak wilt, so keep to dormant-season pruning, since spring cuts draw the beetles that carry the fungus. Oak anthracnose can damage a tree but is seldom fatal. Insects infest many of the acorns.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Swamp White Oak, Rogers 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/swamp-white-oak)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Quercus bicolor, Snyder 1992](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/quebic/all.html)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus bicolor](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501012)
- [USDA Forest Service, Field Guide to Native Oak Species of Eastern North America, FHTET-03-01, Stein, Binion and Acciavatti 2003](https://rngr.net/publications/field-guide-to-native-oak-species-of-eastern-north-america)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Quercus bicolor](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-bicolor/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Quercus bicolor](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=280712)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Swamp white oak](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/swamp-white-oak/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus bicolor](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUBI)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Swamp White Oak](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/swamp-white-oak)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: swamp white oak](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=313)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Quercus bicolor](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-bicolor/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Quercus.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus bicolor](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.145299/Quercus_bicolor)
- [Maine Natural Areas Program: Maine Rare Plant List, 2021 tracking list](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/rare_plants/plantlist.htm)

## 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)
- [Chinese chestnut: size, growth rate, bark, and how it differs from the American chestnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/chinese-chestnut/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 Great Lakes and Midwest: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-the-great-lakes-and-midwest/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Swamp White Oak, add ?species=swamp-white-oak with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=swamp-white-oak&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Swamp White Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=swamp-white-oak): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=swamp-white-oak
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Swamp White Oak is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=swamp-white-oak
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Swamp White Oak needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=swamp-white-oak:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Swamp White Oak flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.