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Post Oak
When I was growing up I lived about two miles from what was one of the very first shopping centers in Columbia, SC. I used to ride my bike there all the time. There was a creek with a bridge on the back side of the shopping center, and on the far side of the bridge a gigantic old oak tree. I didn’t know much about trees in those days, but I was get my ICEE and either sit at the base of that tree, between the large roots, or hoist myself up to the first limb and just sit there and enjoy the ICEE and the day.
I still remember that great old tree, though sadly they eventually cut it down to make room for a house. It was squatty as oaks go, quite wider in spread than tall, with limbs that came straight out from the truck, the lowest limb maybe eight feet up from the ground. If my memory serves me correctly it would have been about four feet in diameter with a limb spread of 60-70 feet. I miss that old tree.
Along the way I learned that it was a post oak. I can’t say why really but the post oak has become my favorite oak tree, and I happy that they are all over Greensboro.
Even if you don’t much about trees, you’ve walked under post oaks many times, and it’s not hard to help you know when you’re looking up at one.
The post oak is in the white oak family. Among other things this means that the leaves are smooth edged – no pointy bristle tips. So the edges of the post oak are smooth edged. Post oak leaves tend to be somewhat dark and glossy green on top and lighter and somewhat hairy on the undersides. Often the leaf veins are quite prominent. In comparison to other oaks, post oak limbs tend to come straight out from the trunk. They also tend to be crowded (which makes them good climbing trees).
But the single biggest giveaway of the post oak is the shape of the leaf. After I finish typing this I will do a little web search until I find and provide a good link or two for some pictures of post oak trees and leaves. But for now let me just say that the post oak leaf is shaped very much like a Maltese cross. It is quite unique and distinctive in this way. There is no other leave like it. As to size, we’re talking maybe 4-6 inches long and 3-4 inches wide. Posy oak leaves have a habit of not wanting to fall off the tree in the fall, so often post oaks in winter have a fair number of brown hanger-on leaves. As to fall color, well, the post oak isn’t much, sometimes with right soil conditions there is a decent show of red, but when the little leaves unfurl in the Spring they tend to be reddish in color, and this adds to the diverse color palate of early Spring display.
The post oak trunk tends towards a ruddy brownish-gray color, is somewhat vertically fissured, occasionally also horizontally fissured leaving a blocked appearance, more so the older the tree gets.
So, why is called a post oak? Given its craggy and somewhat scraggly appearance, and tendency toward breath rather than height, it certainly isn’t because of shape. Well, apparently, according to my tree books, the wood is very dense and hard, and decomposes very slowly, and was thus used by our pioneer ancestors for fence posts, and later for railroad ties. It could have been called “railroad tie oak,” but that doesn’t sound very good. I like “cross oak,” named after the shape of the leaf, but then, I would like that.
There are a whole bunch of post oaks near my office at Bessemer and Elm Street. There are quite a few lining north Elm on the west side as one heads out of down town, and many throughout FisherPark neighborhood. There is a HUGE post oak back yard on the corner of Bessemer and Cherry or Olive. I am thankful that in my neighborhood there is quite a nice post oak right at the corner of Beaconwood and Ropley, and since the post oak is my favorite oak tree, that nice specimen gives me a smile as I walk around the neighborhood.
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