White Oak
Quercus alba
A white oak was planted in the south section on April 16, 2026. The Wikipedia entry for the white oak is here. It is a deciduous hardwood with a broad range in the United States, from the Mississippi River east to the Atlantic coast and from Maine to Florida.
There are close to 500 species of oaks, which are in the same family Fagaceae as our European beech tree in the northeast corner of the Park. Besides the red oak in the Park, there are rows of pin oaks on the Community College of Philadelphia campus along the south side of the Athletic Center at the Community College of Philadelphia; a row of sawtooth oaks lining the east side of 20th Street across from the Franklin Institute; and a row of willow oaks lining the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue next to the Barnes. Their names derive from the characteristics of their leaves. Oaks of different species can cross-pollinate and produce hybrids.
White oak on its planting day.
This is replacing the white pine which toppled in a February 2026 snow storm. Its stump is seen behind the white oak sapling. The red oak is seen in the back right.
White Oak Factoids
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The light color of the underside of its leaves gives it the name white oak. Compared to the nearby red oak the white oak leaf lobes are rounder.
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Red oak acorns have tiny hairs on the inner surface of their acorn caps, whereas white oak acorns are hairless. Sexual maturity in the white oak begins at about 20 years of age but it takes 50 years to get up to significant acorn production. Its acorns can be eaten and are less bitter than those of the red oak.
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Trees that shed their leaves in the fall are called deciduous trees. Oaks are deciduous, but the dead oak leaves often stay on the tree through the winter until new leaf buds form in the spring (a trait called marcescence). Beeches, like the one in the northeast corner of the Park, similarly hold on to dead leaves.
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Some oaks, like the white oak, make acorns every season. The red oak makes a crop of acorns every other season. The red oak flowers every year, but in the first year of the cycle the acorns are tiny stubs by fall, and only fully mature the following autumn. Both types of oaks also participate in what are called “mast years” — unpredictable cycles when trees produce an unusually large crop of acorns compared to typical years. These years can overwhelm wildlife with food, increasing the odds that some acorns escape being eaten and go on to sprout.
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The red oak and other two-year oaks like the black oak, pin oak, and scarlet oak tend to have pointy leaves, while the one-year oak leaves have more rounded tips. Our red oak tree produces in odd-numbered years.
Botany 101 Bonus
Time
"Large streams from little fountains flow. Tall oaks from little acorns grow."
Time scales are all relative. Mayflies live as adults for only a few hours, long enough to mate and reproduce, with any luck. Humans live for up to one hundred or more years. Trees tend to be in between the human and mayfly lifespans, but some trees, like our Cedars of Lebanon, can live for thousands of years. The white oak can live for 400 years, although city trees tend to have shorter lifespans, mostly due to pollution, trauma from people or lawnmowers, dog urine, and, as with all trees, insect and fungal and nematode pests. In the art of many cultures the white oak is considered a symbol of strength and endurance, so we will keep our fingers crossed with our new tree.
Not all insects are pests
The Friends of Matthias Baldwin Park planted the white oak in our certified Level I Arboretum for several reasons: it is a native species; it grows slowly but lives a long time; it is beautifully shaped and provides significant shade when older; it acts as a keystone species supporting hundreds of caterpillar and beneficial insect species and the larger animals like squirrels appreciate the acorns. The red oak acorns have more unpalatable tannins which will be leached out as the acorns winter over on the ground. The white oak acorns are more tasty with less tannins and they tend to germinate in the fall shortly after dropping. This is a survival strategy to escape predators who would otherwise eat the acorns as soon as they drop.