Volunteer Oak . . .

We have an Oak tree that sprang up in the North side yard in the Jasmine Ivy.  It was next to a Hackberry we had cut down and has since sort of taken off.

We pretty much determined it is a Red Oak but not necessarily a Shumard like the two threes out front.  And I notice several of these volunteer Oaks in the neighborhood.  They have a peculiarity somewhat common to Post Oaks.  The term is Marcesecence.  It literally means the tree is deciduous, but it does not drop its dead leaves, it pushes them off in the Spring like a Live Oak tree which is an Evergreen tree.  The leaves turn color of red and then gradually to a brown but hang in there.

My research says it is a Barkely Oak Tree, a common variety of red oak that lives amongst us here in North Texas,  It will pretty much perform just like the Shumards out front and will in time interbreed with the Shumards. They are both North Texas Red Oaks.

The deer had at the young tree this winter but it seems to have withstood their rutting behavior.  They tore up the trunk in places but I painted over the damage and I am sure it will heal with time.

Right now the base of the trunk is about 2.5 inches in diameter.  It is said it will grow to perhaps 75 feet and spread about 50 feet, or about the same as the Shumards out front.  So we now know what it will look like in the out years.

I have fertilized it a couple of times and that will enhance its development.  It sprang up next to the old stump and the tree people said it will "feed off the old stump."  I figure it will not hurt to give some go juice so to speak and get it up and making a nice canopy to shade the house. 

A good replacement for the old trashy Hackberry trees.  And a fine complement to the Shumards out front.