Oregon white oak

The Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana), also known as Garry Oak, has a range from northern California to British Columbia. They grow into medium-size trees, 20m, occasionally as high as 25m, and can have the characteristic oval profile of other oaks when solitary, but are also known to grow in groves close enough together that their crowns form a canopy.

The Oregon White Oak is commonly found in the Willamette Valley hosting the American Mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens). It is also commonly found hosting a green or yellow ball of up to two inches in size, attached to the underside of some of the leaves. This abnormal growth -- a gall -- is formed by the oak around a colony of wormlike larvae belonging to one of several species of tiny wasps. The most common species responsible for these galls is Cynips maculipennis.

The Oregon White Oak has not been seen as having any commercial value, and is frequently destroyed as land is cleared for development. However, recently the wood, which is similar to that of other white oaks, has been used experimentally in Oregon for creating casks to age wine in.

History

Before the European settlers came into the Willamette Valley, the oaks were mostly open-grown individual trees because the native Calapuya people regularly burned much of the valley. Since the settlers did not continue this practice, the intervening land was soon covered with seedling oaks (called "oak grubs" by the pioneers) which grew vertically and formed a closed canopy. Remnants of the old open-grown oaks are still found in these closed oak stands.