Cedar Creek Natural History Area

Plants of Cedar Creek

The Beech Family includes four species of Quercus (Oaks).  These trees are monoecious.  The minute flowers are wind pollinated from male catkins.  Fruits are the familiar acorns.  The White Oak group has rounded lobes to the leaves, mild tasting fruit, and acorns that mature in a single season.  This group includes Q. alba (White Oak) an uncommon tree of mesic woods, and Q. macrocarpa (Bur Oak) a dominant tree in the burned savanna region south of Fish Lake.  This tree with its thick corky bark, and when open grown, wide-spreading lichen-covered limbs is an extremely attractive, fire tolerant species.

The Red Oak group has pointed lobes to the leaves, bitter tasting fruit, and require two years for the fruit to mature.  Q. rubra (=borealis; N. Red Oak) is an uncommon tree found on Crone’s Knoll and other fire protected woodlands in northern reaches of the Area.  Acorns are large robust things with a shallow cap.  The dominant upland oaks are Q. ellipsoidalis (N. Pin Oak) and Q. rubra x ellipsoidalis hybrids. Q. ellipsoidalis acorns are slender and tapered with a deep cap.  This species readily resprouts after fire.  It grows tall and straight, retains its dead lower limbs and frequently its leaves throughout winter.  These are also characteristics of the putative hybrid making definitive identification difficult.