| Florida Champion
| Laurel Oak Quercus laurifolia Beech Family — Oak Genus Baker, Okaloosa County, Florida Circumference = 258 inches (21.5 feet)
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The Laurel Oak, sometimes called Darlington Oak or Diamond-leaf Oak, is a large, attractive, nearly evergreen tree with a dense, broad, rounded crown. Its name refer to its resemblance to the foliage of the Grecian Laurel (Lauris nobilis) of the Mediterranean.
Laurel Oak grows on Southeast coastal plains, from southeast Virgina to Florida and west to south Texas. It grows in moist woods, along stream edges, river banks, and swamps, and in hammoacks. It does best in well-drained soils. Laurel oak does not form pure stands, but grows in association with sweetgum, bald cypress, pignut hickory, live oak, longleaf and loblolly pines. It hybridizes with closely related oaks.
Laurel Oak grows rapidly, but is short-lived, reaching flowering age in about 5 years and maturing at 50 years. It flowers in early spring, and acorns develop and mature at the end of two growing seasons. Large acorn crops are produced regularly, and they are important food for wildlife, including whitetail deer, raccoons, squirrels, turkeys, ducks, quail, and smaller birds and rodents. Deer browse the buds and young twigs in winter after acorns are exhausted.
The dark brown to reddish-brown wood is coarse-grained, hard, heavy, and strong, but does not make a good grade of lumber. It is used locally for firewood. This handsome tree is sometimes planted as street trees, but its short life limit its usefulness.
IdentificationSize: medium size tree, 65 to 80 feet tall, rarely over 100 feet, with a full, rounded crown; trunk tall, straight, 1 to 2.5 feet diameter, rarely up to 4.5 feet
Range: southeast Virginia, south to Florida, and west to south Texas, and north locally to south Arkansas
Habitat: moist to wet well-drained sandy soils along streams, rivers and swamps, and in hammocks
Leaves: alternate, nearly evergreen, gradually falling in late winter or early spring, generally entire, thick leathery texture, shiny green or dark green above, light green and slightly shiny beneath, 2 to 5.5 inches long, .5 to 1.5 inch wide, narrowly oblong, diamond- or lance-shaped, widest near the middle, long pointed at the tip (bristle-tipped), tapering to a narrowed base, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed near the tip
Leafstalks: stout, .1 to .3 inch long
Flowers: appear in early spring, male and female in separate catkins, male in slender, hanging, hairy catkins, 2 to 3 inches long; female tiny, inconspicuous, borne on stout, short stalks in stem junctions of current year's leaves
Fruit: acorns, maturing in 2 seasons, often solitary, occasionally paired, short-stalked or nearly stalkless, .8 to 1 inch long, globe-shaped, broadest near the base, rounded at the tip, cup shallow saucer-shaped, enclosing 1/4 of the nut, cup scales thin, overlapping, reddish-brown
Bark: .5 to 1 inch thick, developing furrows that separate broad flattened ridges, gray to dark brown, turning almost black and rough with age
Twigs: slender, the lower ones spreading, hairless or slightly hairy, branchlets slender, smooth, dark red turning reddish-brown to dark gray with age
Buds: sharp, hairless, angled, .1 to .2 inch long, broadest near base, tapering to pointed tip, covered with thin, reddish-brown, overlapping scales
Wood: dark brown to reddish-brown, coarse-grained, hard, heavy, strong
Similar Species: Willow Oak, Darlington Oak
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