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| ## overcup oak {#overcup-oak .Title-Header}                           |
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| *Quercus lyrata* Walt.                                                |
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| Plant Symbol = QULY                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of
North America Program

## Alternate Names 

Swamp post oak, swamp white oak, water white oak

## Uses

Wood of overcup oak is brownish, hard, heavy, and strong; it is marketed
as white oak primarily for lumber and cooperage but is not consistently
valued for quality products because of fire damage and defects from wood
borers and heartwood decay following fire injuries. Checking during
drying and seasoning often prevents general use even as ties and
timbers. In some areas, this species has been avoided in cutting and has
increased in dominance at cut-over sites.

Overcup oak is planted to improve wildlife habitat and for bottomland
restoration. Ducks, wild turkeys, hogs, white-tailed deer, squirrels,
and smaller rodents eat the acorns.

Overcup oak also is planted as an ornamental. The trees can withstand
significant flooding and poorly drained soils and are tolerant to
drought and cold. In spite of its natural occurrence where periodical
flooding is typical, overcup oak grows best on sites with better
drainage and soil texture.
![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.6979166666666665in"
height="4.051388888888889in"}

## Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

## Description 

*General*: Beech Family (Fagaceae). Native trees commonly growing to
18--30 m tall, often with a short trunk and open, irregularly rounded
crown; bark light gray, becoming furrowed into scaly plates and ridges.
Leaves are deciduous, alternate, generally obovate to elliptic-oblong in
outline but highly variable, 13--21 cm long and 4--10 cm wide, basally
wedge-shaped, with 5--9 deep, rounded lobes, shiny dark green above,
usually paler gray-green below and variably hairy, turning red, yellow,
or brown in fall. Male and female flowers are borne in separate catkins
on the same tree (the species monoecious) on the current year\'s
branchlets. Acorns maturing in the first year, nearly round, nearly
globose to broadly ovoid (broadest near the base), 12--25 mm long, with
a warty gray cup almost enclosing 2/3 to nearly all of the acorn, with
acute scales. Common name from the acorn almost entirely enclosed in the
spherical cup.

Overcup oak is a member of the white oak subgroup (subgenus *Quercus*)
and hybridizes with other related species, including white oak (*Q.
alba*), swamp white oak (*Q. bicolor*), Durand oak (*Q. durandii*), bur
oak (*Q. macrocarpa*), swamp chestnut oak (*Q. michauxii*), post oak
(*Q. stellata*), and live oak (*Q. virginiana*).

*Variation within the species:* Variants within the species are not
recognized.

## Distribution

This plant is native to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from
southeastern Virginia to panhandle Florida and westward to east Texas,
north in the to Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, with scattered
populations in northern Alabama, central Tennessee, Delaware, and
Maryland. For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile
page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

## Establishment 

*Adaptation*: Overcup oak usually occurs on clay or silty-clay flats in
first bottoms and terraces of larger streams and rivers. It is also
common on the edges of swamps and bayous and in poorly drained
depressions or sinkholes. Overcup oak may be dominant and climax in
stands with water hickory (*Carya aquatica*) on low, backwater flats and
other sites commonly flooded for 30--40% of the growing season.
Tolerance to late spring floods results partly from its phenology \-- it
leafs out a month or more later than most species. Many stands of
overcup oak owe their development to tolerance of early season flooding
that kills off earlier flushing species.

Overcup oak is relatively intolerant of shade. Suppressed young trees
respond strongly to release when the canopy is opened by disturbance.

The heavy, wet, clay soils where overcup oak typically grows restrict
root development to relatively shallow depths. Seedlings initially
produce taproots, but these are soon replaced by a shallow, lateral root
system.

Flowering occurs in (March--)April--May, with appearance of new leaves,
sometimes as long as a month after sympatric species and it fruits in
September--October.

*General*: Overcup oak begins to produce seed at about 25--30 years;
good crops are produced every 3--4 years. Overcup oak acorns have a
unique spongy shell that renders them buoyant. They are disseminated
primarily by water, buoyed by a spongy shell. After winter dormancy,
they germinate in the spring after floodwaters recede. Good germination
occurs on moist soils when acorns are covered by leaves. Seeds germinate
profusely beneath complete canopy, but the seedlings succumb or at least
die back to the root collar within 3 years unless released. Flooding
during the first few growing seasons also produces high mortality of
seedlings.

Height growth of overcup oak is slower than many associated species,
causing it to be overtopped easily. Maximum age is about 400 years.

Stumps of small trees sprout vigorously but not consistently after
top-kill.

## Management

Prolonged drought in bottomlands may lead to surface fires that kill
overcup oak seedlings and saplings and damage bark of larger trees. Such
minor injuries open trees to infection by heart rot fungi. Young overcup
oak trees may sprout after top-kill by fire.

Natural reforestation of bottomland oldfields now favors tree species
that tolerate dry soils because a large proportion of formerly wet sites
are subject to flood control. Since overcup oak is dependent on overflow
or floodwaters for seed dispersal, it has to be planted on these sites
if its presence is desired. Nuttall oak (*Quercus nuttallii*) is often
used to replace overcup oak on sites that have reduced flooding or
stream flow.

## Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

These plant materials are readily available from commercial sources.
Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

## References

Nixon, K.C. & others 1993. *Quercus*. Pp. 445-506, IN: *Flora of North
America, North of Mexico. Vol. 3*. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, New
York.
\<http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/Flora/flora.pl?FLORA_ID=12395\>
Accessed September 2000.

Solomon, J.D. 1990. *Quercus lyrata* *Walt. Overcup Oak*. Pp. 681-685,
in R.M. Burns and B.H. Honkala. *Silvics of North America. Volume 2.
Hardwoods*. USDA Forest Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.
\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Volume_2/quercus/lyrata.htm\>
Accessed September 2000.

Sullivan, J. 1993. *Quercus lyrata*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). *The
fire effects information system \[database\]*. USDA, Forest Service,
Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory,
Missoula, Montana.
\<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/quelyr/\> Accessed
September 2000.

USDA, NRCS 2000. *The PLANTS database*. \<http://plants.usda.gov\>.
001106. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

## Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

## Species Coordinator

### *Gerald Guala*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited 06dec00 jsp; 14feb03 ahv; 060809 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA\'s [TARGET
Center](http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm) at 202-720-2600 (voice and
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*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or
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*Read about [Civil Rights at the Natural Resources Convervation
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