# Valley Oak (Quercus lobata)

> Valley oak, Quercus lobata: a large tree of 30 to 100 feet for zones 7 to 9, how far from a house to plant it, and the natives we grow for the same ground.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/species/valley-oak/

![A mature valley oak alone on a dry grass hillside, its dark crown and drooping outer branches against a blue sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/valley-oak-1000.jpg?v=c17d807b "A mature valley oak on a hillside on August 27, 2020, with dark foliage and drooping outer branches. It lives up to 600 years.")
*Photo: WeirdNAnnoyed, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AValley_oak_August_2020.jpg))*

Large tree, 30 to 100 feet, zones 7 to 9; full sun or part shade; dry, average or wet ground.

We do not grow valley oak, and it is not in our shop. This page gathers what our tools say about it and the natives we grow for the same ground.

## At a glance

| Fact | Valley Oak |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | California white oak, valley white oak, weeping oak |
| Form | Large tree |
| Height, feet | 30 to 100 |
| Spread, feet | Up to 50 |
| Zones | 7 to 9 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Dry, average or wet ground |
| Growth | Fast |
| Leaves | Deciduous |
| Traits | Fall color, wildlife value, edible, winter interest, erosion control |
| Flowers | March to April |
| Fruit | Acorns, August to November |
| Pollination | Needs a second, unrelated tree. The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby, since oaks seldom set acorns with their own pollen. |
| Lifespan | Lives up to 600 years, and the oldest dated one was at least 314. Only a tiny share of trees has ever been ring-counted or cross-dated. |
| Planting season | Fall. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources advises sowing acorns once fall rains wet the soil and planting seedlings by the end of January, as March is usually too late. |
| Black walnut | Not named on the Morton Arboretum's lists |
| Toxicity | The acorns and leaves are poisonous to horses. |
| Ground | Floodplain forests and stream banks |
| Native in | 1 state |

Valley oak is native in 1 state: [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA). The states are the USDA PLANTS Database's records, with the native range read from the Fire Effects Information System.

## What our tools say

- [How fast it grows and how big it gets, by site](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the growth estimator
- [Whether it suits your zone, sun and soil](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the planting-site check
- [How far from a house, wires and a septic field](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=valley-oak&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree): the planting-distance tool
- [What grows with it in the wild and in a yard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the companion species tool
- [When to plant it where you live](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the planting-window tool
- [When it flowers and fruits, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=valley-oak): the bloom and fruit calendar
- [How to sow its seed, with dates for your place](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the seed sowing planner
- [How many to plant for a crop of seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=valley-oak:2): the pollination planner
- [Whether one you have can be moved, and what the move takes](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the transplant planner
- [How old one is, from its trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-age/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the tree age calculator
- [How a big one scores against the champion trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/big-tree/index.html.md?species=valley-oak): the big-tree measurer

## For the same ground, we grow

- [Chokecherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chokecherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus virginiana*): small tree, 20 to 30 feet, zones 2 to 10. Shares stream banks in the wild.
- [More natives for this ground in the tree finder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/index.html.md?size=large-tree&sun=full&moisture=average)
- [Every companion of valley oak in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=valley-oak)

## Read from

Its figures come from the Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System, the Woody Plant Seed Manual, the USDA PLANTS Database, NC State Extension, the Wildflower Center, Cal Poly's SelecTree, the UC Davis Arboretum, Oregon State University's Landscape Plants, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Calscape and the International Tree-Ring Data Bank.