# Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis)

> The oak of the southern sandhills, with deep-cut leaves shaped like a turkey's foot that turn red in fall and cling into winter.

Also called turkey-foot oak, Catesby oak, American turkey oak, Quercus catesbaei. Category: Rare & Uncommon Oaks. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/turkey-oak/

![Turkey oak (Quercus laevis) deeply lobed turkey-foot leaves against the sky beside a pine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/turkey-oak-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Bruce Kirchoff, CC BY 2.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AQuercus_laevis_%2823554119293%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 20 to 50 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and dry uplands
- Native range: 8 states, north to Virginia, south to Florida and west to Louisiana (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Drought tolerant, Fall color, Wildlife value, Winter interest, Street tree
- 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

Turkey oak is a small red oak of the driest sand on the southeastern Coastal Plain, in pure stands or beneath longleaf pine. Its leaves hang edge-on to the sun, a habit thought to shield them from heat and water loss. Florida alone holds 9 to 10 million acres of it. Where turkey oak was cleared from sandhills, deer used the land far less, above all in the fall. Turkey oak can also serve as a street tree. Grow it on a hot, sandy ridge where other shade trees fail, or in a sandhill planting with longleaf pine and wiregrass.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Turkey oak grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It has a relatively short life span. Expect 20 to 50 feet, with a crown 10 to 20 feet wide.

It flowers in April or late spring, and the acorns take two seasons to ripen, ready in September and October of the second year. They are three quarters of an inch to an inch long, a third covered by the cup. They are a major food of black bears, deer, bobwhite quail and wild turkeys in Florida.

It grows wild on dry sandhills and ridges of the Coastal Plain from southeast Virginia to central Florida and west to southeast Louisiana. The largest on record, near Branford, Florida, stood 83 feet tall.

## How to grow Turkey Oak

Turkey oak wants full sun and deep, sharply drained sand, strongly acid and poor. It does not take wet soil, shade or salt spray. It spreads by underground runners, so do not plant it where suckers would be a nuisance. Set trees 15 feet apart, and keep each one 15 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship potted. The seedling sends down a long taproot early, and the tree is hard to move once it has one, so plant it young. Plant it dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the pot and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the sand back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Turkey oak acorns need 60 to 90 days of damp cold before they sprout, and they will not sprout once they dry out. Sow them in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. NC State lists it as resistant to deer, but a tube or cage for the first two years still keeps rabbits off the young stem. Keep the mulch thin at the trunk so voles do not nest there, and prune only to keep one leader.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. As a red oak it is highly susceptible to oak wilt, so prune only in the dormant season, to avoid the beetles that spread it. Acorn weevils can ruin much of a crop in some years. Grown trees bear acorns almost every year.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Turkey Oak, Harlow 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/turkey-oak)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Quercus laevis, Carey 1992](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/quelae)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus laevis](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501054)
- [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 laevis](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-laevis/)
- [UF/IFAS Extension, FOR 250: Quercus laevis, Turkey Oak](https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FR312)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Quercus laevis](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-laevis/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus laevis](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QULA2)
- [Florida Native Plant Society Plant Database: Quercus laevis](https://www.fnps.org/plant/quercus-laevis)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter](https://rngr.net/publications/wpsm/genera/q/at_download/file)
- [Oaks of the World, Jean-Louis Hélardot: Quercus laevis](http://oaks.of.the.world.free.fr/quercus_laevis.htm)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus laevis](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.143757/Quercus_laevis)

## 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)
- [Native trees and shrubs for dry, sandy soil: the plants of barrens and dunes, and how to grow them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-for-dry-sandy-soil/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

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Turkey Oak, add ?species=turkey-oak with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=turkey-oak&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Turkey Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=turkey-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=turkey-oak
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Turkey 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=turkey-oak
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Turkey 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=turkey-oak:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Turkey Oak flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.