In need of a hardy shade tree for your yard? Consider an overcup oak, a tough tree that thrives with little care in many types of soils and growing conditions.
It was selected as a Gold Medal plant in Georgia for 2006, and was rated superior in a 13-year evaluation at Auburn University.
While most oaks are slow growers (which is why most people don't buy them), this native tree grows fast, particularly when it is young.
Overcup oak (Quercus lyrata) is also known as swamp post oak, swamp white oak and water white oak. It is found in wet bottom lands of the coastal plain from Delaware to Georgia and west to Texas, and as far north as Illinois and Indiana.
It also thrives on dry, upland sites and adapts to a variety of soils and growing environments.
Overcup oak is a tough shade tree for streets, large landscapes, public parks, golf courses and office parks.
Its initial growth is somewhat pyramidal. With age, it gradually becomes more rounded. It typically grows 50 feet tall and 50 feet wide under cultivation, and can reach much higher. In Dr. Michael Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (fifth edition, 1998), the National Champion tree in Bertie County, N.C., is 156 feet tall by 120 feet wide. On a Web site search of the North Carolina Division of Forest Services Champion Tree database, though, I couldn't find the tree listed. That probably means it either died or has been cut down.
A search of the Georgia Forestry Commission Web site shows four state co-champion overcup oaks -- in Putnam, Cherokee, Upson, and Screven counties -- with the tallest, in Putnam County, at 131 feet.
A warty cap almost covers the acorn, which gives the tree its name.
Nursery experts call overcup oak a tough, tolerant tree that's perfect for less-than-perfect sites. It thrives in heavy, compacted clay soil, and it loves the heat and humidity of the Deep South.
Even though this might not be the best time of the year to look at them, you can find overcup oaks in the Druid Park area between Walton Way and Laney-Walker Boulevard.
With a life span as long as 400 years, overcup oak provides a living legacy for future generations to enjoy. You can't say that about most fast-growing trees.
Reach Sid Mullis, the director of the University of Georgia Extension Service Office in Richmond County, at (706) 821-2349 or smullis@uga.edu.
MARCH GARDEN TIPS
- Put a rain gauge in your yard so you can tell when and how much to water. Most vegetables, annual flowers and turfgrass need about 1 inch of rain per week from April to September.
- As the flowers fade, cut the flower stalks of daffodils, hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbs back to the ground. Don't cut the foliage until it dies naturally. The leaves are needed to produce strong bulbs that can reflower. If the sight of withering foliage is bothersome, tie it in knots to make it less conspicuous.
- If you have sandy soil that dries out fast in the summer, try gardening in a hole. Prepare the soil in a depression or trough several inches below the surface of the paths. You might find it will reduce evaporation and make watering easier.
- If you have little or no space to garden, try hanging a few plants on your porch or deck for a convenient harvest. Bush cucumbers, small tomatoes, lettuce and spinach can be grown in baskets. Herbs are also well-suited to hanging baskets.
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