Scarlet Oak

Scarlet Oak — Quercus coccinea

Quercus is Latin meaning fine tree; coccinea means scarlet. This tree is appropriately named for not only are the leaves scarlet colored in the fall, but are also btight red when emerging in the spring.

Scarlet oak is one of the most valued trees for home and park landscapes because of the brilliant fall color that it can produce. Actually, not all specimens will develop brilliant scarlet fall color because, like most oaks, they are grown from seed. Seedlings will be quite variable in fall color as well as other characteristics. The fine specimen before you is a “textbook” example in that the growth habit is typically columnar, the foliage is sharply and deeply lobed and the acorns, when present, have the typical wedge-shaped, glossy cup.

Scarlet oak readily hybridizes with red oak (Q. rubra) and pin oak (Q. palustris), producing trees with highly variable characteristics and often difficult to classify precisely to species (see Post 3 for comparative characteristics of red oak).

The mature height of this tree, at least in Colorado, may be 70’. It prefers drier, well-drained and neutral-to- slightly acid soils. It is strongly branched and will suffer only minor limb breakage in late spring or early fall snowstorms. Native range is from eastern Nebraska and Minnesota east to Delaware and Massachusetts.

Other Denver locations

Washington Park (NWcorner); Cheesman Park (West side).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Oak