Say you are looking to see whether a tree is a white oak or a red oak. Identification is complicated by the occurrence of hybrids, which often have quite variable leaves. All species are inclined to hybridize except that white oaks do not hybridize with red oaks. Since many hybrids lack fruit, it is a good idea to turn to neighboring trees with acorns. When these fertile trees have been named it is often possible to recognize a hybrid in respect to the two parents that are involved. Hybrids can often be recognized as hybrids if they cannot be "keyed out" and/or do not match any photographs and descriptions.

Here is a partial list of native hybrid oaks:

Quercus x anceps Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x bebbiana Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x bushii Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x deamii Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x exacta Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x fallax Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x fernowii Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x filialis Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x hillii Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x humidicola Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x jackiana Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x ludoviciana Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x palmeriana Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x runcinata Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x saulii Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x schochiana Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x schuettei Fagaceae Hybrid oak tree native -
Quercus x tridentata

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/hybrids1.htm If you go to this site there are some great pictures of hybrid oaks along with some other interesting plant hybrids. You will find the oak photos toward the middle of the site pages.

I used to roam through the Bluff Woods Forest in Missouri and pick out hybrids between the black oaks and the red oaks. I had the description of each species with me to identify the hybrids. It was a lot of fun.

Tom

When I worked for the Forest Service in Northern Wisconsin some of my colleagues worked with oaks and their goal was to improve red oak. One of their frustrations was that pin and red oak easily crossed. Red oak acorns are generally larger than pin oak. For their experiments they would get acorn collections and through seives separate out different sized acorns and use the larger ones because they are assumed to have primarily red oak genes.

What oaks are you planning on crossing? Too bad they seem so difficult to root cuttings from and clone superior selections. These researchers were able to have some success rooting cuttings from relatively young trees under certain conditions. I'm not sure how much grafting work has been done for propagation of superior clones.

Levente,
Order up a catalog from these folks:

OIKOS Tree Crops
P.O. Box 19425
Kalamazoo MI 49019-0425
Phone: (616) 624-6233
Fax: (616) 624-4019

They specialize in generating all types of really cool oak hybrids and they share what the parents were for each type.

There's a great chapter on hybridizing your own oaks, in the book "Breeding Ornamental Plants", Timber Press.
I love this book, it also has chapters for several other genera.

V

I have a little**red oak** with half leaves dark green and other part green nearly white..
Hendy

Quercus gambelii, Quercus turbinella and Quercus undulata all cross readily here in the central Colorado Rockies.

Levente,
I'll second the motion for OIKOS - I've gotten a number of my F2 hybrid seedlings from them.

Another source of hybrid acorns is Starhill Forest Arboretum (email strhlfrst@aol.com for a catalog), though their usualy cut-off date for order placement is 15 Aug. You might be able to get them to grant an extension, or at least place you on the mailing list for next year.

I got a few new hybrid acorns from a friend & fellow IOS member who was able to attend the 2000 IOS Conference in Asheville, NC last fall. Check out the IOS website, linked below, and consider joining, if you're not already a member.

Currently, I have the following hybrids growing in my collection:

Q.macrocarpaXrobur - seedlings & grafted "McDaniel" selection
Q.macrocarpaXbicolor
Q.macrocarpaXmichauxii
Q.macrocarpaXmuehlenbergii
Q.albaXrobur
Q.roburXmontana(prinus)
Q.bicolorXrobur
Q.lyrataXvirginiana
Q.virginianaXturbinella

There may be others in the nursery, but these are all I can think of, off the top of my head.

Here is a link that might be useful: International Oak Society

Does anyone have a web address for Oinkos.
Also a couple months ago in Mother Earth News,
I saw an add for someone carrying hybrid oaks,
but I misplace the web link.

oikostreecrops.com

Ive been trying to find hybrid oak seeds, does anybody know where to get them?

I stumbled into this looking for information on white vs red oak family. Now I'm mostly practicing thread necromancy. Its neat to read a thread which is older than people who cam drive now. Thanks for saving these 1's and 0's Houzz.