Those who have read my book or heard my presentations know that one of our major concerns about the future of our rare and ancient woodland pastures is the failure of trees to reproduce. With trees succumbing to age, lightning and poor management, the population of ancient trees is declining. While we are constantly on […]
Update: In response to some questions, we have added a description of differences between Northern red oak, Shumard oak and riparian oak at the end of this article. Near Ashland in Lexington, we found a beautiful, large riparian oak. Riparian oak is a hybrid between Northern Red Oak, Quercus rubra, and Shumard oak, Quercus shumardii. Its […]
Shumard oak, Quercus shumardii, is a puzzling tree. It is not abundant anywhere in its large range. It is easily confused with other red oaks, and it probably hybridizes with them. In the Bluegrass, Shumard oak is common, but highly variable. Here is a slide show of Shumard oaks in the Bluegrass.