Because of their potential for attaining such great age, white oaks should always get first consideration when it comes to our protection. The oak clan is divided into two tribes, the white oaks and the red oaks. The red oaks, regardless of the shape of the leaf, always have a bristle on the tip of the leaf while the white oaks have rounded lobes and never have a bristle. The acorns of white oaks also germinate differently, with a root emerging in the fall when they drop. The shoot does not appear until the following spring.
Red oaks send down their tap root in the spring when the top starts growing.
To foresters, the major difference is in the characteristics of the wood. White oak wood has no passageways through the wood in the heartwood, where red oaks do have passages in the vessels. Because of this, white oaks can be used to make whiskey barrels, while red oaks make better railroad ties because they will absorb the creosote being applied under pressure. The heartwood of white oaks does not allow cross movement of air and moisture, making them less likely to decay internally. That's why they have the potential to attain great age.