Bear Oak
Quercus ilicifolia
Bear oak is a thicket-forming scrub oak of Northeastern barrens and rocky ridgetops, thriving where soils are too poor and dry for most trees. Heavy acorn crops feed birds and mammals through winter.
- Family
- Fagaceae
- Type
- shrub
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 4–12 ft
- Spacing
- 8–15 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- dry
- Soil pH
- acidic
- Bloom
- May
- Bloom colors
- yellow, green, brown
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, mammals, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~557 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- specimen, hedge or screen, erosion control
- Native states
- CT, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, WV