White Oak

Trees here in Northeastern Michigan began changing several weeks ago, but this week our fall color rapidly became more vivid in spite of all the rain.  Because Presque Isle's main tree stock is cedar, the deciduous trees are salted among the evergreen, and their color is more striking for being the exception.

Perhaps it was the white oak's fall color which caught my attention as I looked over this week's edition of Dave's Garden, an e-mail newsletter I've come to enjoy.  In the letter's "Latin Word of the Week" item, we find that Quercus (pronounced KWER-kus) is the Latin term for oak tree.  In ancient times the oak was sacred to the gods Jupiter and Thor, and the Bible refers to the oak in stories about Jacob and Joshua.  Native to the northern hemisphere, hundreds of species of oak exist, both deciduous and evergreen, and grow from the cold north to the tropics.  That well-known aphorism, "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow," first appeared in a U.S. newspaper in the late 1800s.

The white oak, Quercus alba, is singled out for special comment in an article entitled "The biggest, oldest tree in the forest," by Sharon Brown.  "One of the largest and most valuable forest trees, the mighty white oak gives its wood to the finest furniture and flooring, its acorns as a food source, and its bark as a medicinal remedy.  Although the tree tends to be slow growing, some of the old giants found in virgin forests have a ring count attesting to a life of 300 to 500 years.  The wood of Quescus alba is close grained, hard, and tough, and that is why it came to be preferred for timber, furniture and flooring.  For centuries, too, white oak was essential in ship construction, from the gun deck of the famous frigate 'Constitution' to the keels of WWII minesweepers and patrol boats.  North American colonists also used this native species for barrel making because the wood held liquids, including the all-important rum."

The white oak is a medium-to-tall sized deciduous tree, rarely growing to more than 120 feet.  The bark is light gray to reddish brown.  White oak leaves, divided into 7-10 rounded lobes, are bright green on the upper side and pale green on the lower.  Catkins — the male and female flowers — appear in May and June.  White oak's fruit, acorns, are light brown when mature.

"The acorns were a food staple for some Native American tribes, who boiled them or crushed them in water and ate them raw.  The bark has a high tannin content and is astringent.  In Indian medicine it was brewed into a tea and was used to treat sinus infections," Ms. Brown notes.

"The Celtic word for the tree is Duir, which means door, and there was a belief that the white oak was the door to other worlds.  It was considered sacred to them and to other cultures because of its size and its long life... [Some] believed that if a fire of oak wood was set in the home of an invalid, the fire... would draw off the illness.  Acorns were placed in windows to guard the house of lightning and storm."

(The photos above — fall color by Victorgardener, and trunk by Viburnum Valley, are both from Dave's Garden Plant Files.  Ms. Brown's article was first published Sept. 4, 2009.  Check out Dave's Garden; it's quite informative.)

I have a special fondness for white oak, because the flooring on the ground floor of my house is this species.  The floor is one of the most striking aspects of the house, quickly noted by people as they walk in for the first time.  I find it comfortable to live with.  But it's not carefree.  To keep sand from scratching away the finish, I try to vacuum a couple times a week.  To protect it from more serious damage, I was told to use felt pads (the self-adhesive type, sold at Home Depot and elsewhere) on furniture.  They work well for pieces which don't move, like the sofa and tables, but they have not proved effective for my dining room chairs.  Because these are moved so often, the pads quickly rub off and I've put at least one gouge in the floor.  Now I'm trying an alternative — white plastic pads nailed onto the floor end of the leg.  I hope these will not mark up my handsome white oak floor!  You never know until you try. •••