Oregon white oak
|
|
| Oregon White Oak | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missing image Lone_oak.jpg Mature Oregon White Oak | ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
The Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana), also known as Garry Oak, has a range from central California to southern British Columbia. This drought tolerant tree is typically of medium height, growing to around 20m and occasionally as high as 30m. The Oregon white oak can have the characteristic oval profile of other oaks when solitary, but is also known to grow in groves close enough together that their crowns form a canopy.
Oregon_oak_grove.jpg
The Oregon White Oak is commonly found in the Willamette Valley hosting the American Mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens). It is also commonly found hosting a green or yellow ball of up to two inches in size, attached to the underside of some of the leaves. This abnormal growth (a gall) is formed by the oak around a colony of wormlike larvae belonging to one of several species of tiny wasps. The most common species responsible for these galls is Cynips maculipennis.
The Oregon White Oak has not historically been regarded as having any commercial value, and is frequently destroyed as land is cleared for development. However, recently the wood, which is similar to that of other white oaks, has been used experimentally in Oregon for creating casks in which to age wine.
History
Before the European settlers came into the Willamette Valley, the oaks were mostly open-grown individual trees due to periodic summer wildfires, and the burning practices of the native Calapuya people. Since the settlers did not continue this practice, and actually suppress most naturally occuring fires, the intervening land was soon covered with seedling oaks (called "oak grubs" by the pioneers) which grew vertically and formed a closed canopy. Remnants of the old open-grown oaks are still found in these closed oak stands.