Southern Red Oak

Bryan Park is home to many remarkable trees, but one that will certainly draw your attention is this Southern red oak on the knoll above Young’s Pond. One limb growing off the side of this mammoth is three feet in diameter and reaches 55 feet away from the trunk. If you follow it from tip to trunk and then walk out to the tips of the limbs on the opposite side, you will have walked over 100 feet. Amazing! Roughly six feet in diameter and 100 feet tall, this tree continues to thrive as some of its nearest neighbors have begun to decline.

Also known as the Spanish oak, the Southern red oak occurs on dry or sandy upland sites from southern Long Island south to central Florida and west to Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.