Quercus marilandica Münchh.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Black Jack Oak (Quercus marilandica) is one of the scrub trees of this country, and few good words are ever heard for it; yet it has redeeming qualities.  Lumbermen have not paid much attention to it and never will, for only when at its best is the trunk large enough for any kind of sawlog, and there has been little inclination to use it for anything else.  It attains size fitting it for fence posts, and sometimes it performs service along that lines; but the small trunks are nearly all sapwood, and decay strikes them quickly.  The bark is black, hence the name, and it is exceedingly rough, and is broken in squares.  The leaves are large and pear-shaped, with the broad end opposite the stem.  Some are slightly lobed.  A vigorous black jack oak, standing in open ground, presents a fine appearance.  The crown is wide and is frequently conical, the limbs small, and are set in the trunk on nearly horizontal lines.  The range of this unloved species covers 600,000 or more square miles, beginning in New York, running west to central Nebraska, south through Texas nearly to the Rio Grande, and in Florida to Tampa.’  [Gibson – American Forest Trees p.291/1913].

Introduced to Europe c.1739.  [Hilliers'].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.804/1850].

Notes