Low riskEdible cooked
White oak
Quercus alba
Rounded lobes, light bark. The best wild starch in these woods — acorns leach sweet.
- Marks
- Rounded lobes; pale bark; sweetish acorns
- Size
- 70–100 ft
- Habitat
- Upland oak-hickory woods of the Dearborn Uplands.
- Season
- Acorns September–October, some years heavy.
- Frequency
- common
Leaves with even, rounded lobes and no bristle tips. Ash-gray scaly bark. Acorns are longer than wide with a warty shallow cap.
Uses
Acorns: shell, grind, leach in changes of water until no longer bitter, then cook as meal. Premier firewood and fence posts. Tight cooperage wood.
Lookalikes
Northern red oak
Quercus rubra
Pointed bristle-tipped lobes. Acorns are bitter and need longer leaching than white oak.
Low riskEdible cooked