Some species are more exclusive to better soils. Oaks commonly occur in near monocultures on sand plains but seldom achieve high quality there. Oaks and hickories occupy a wide range of site conditions, but the best growth occurs on moist, well-drained, loamy soils. Across the country, there may be as many as 70 species of oak and about 13 species of hickory, including five in the pecan group. Most of the oak resource and monetary value are located in the central and southern regions of the eastern United States. Oaks are widespread across the United States with the exception of the Great Plains. Oaks occur in every county of Michigan, although there are large gaps in the Upper Peninsula and the Thumb where oaks are uncommon. Other species have life spans of less than 100 years.ġ Area and volumes of species and forest types are derived from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Data, available at tools-data. Some oak species have the potential to live 200 years or more. An additional 47 species occur in oak-hickory forest types.1 Oak-hickory forest types are among the most diverse in Michigan.

The most common non-oak/hickory species in this forest type are red maple, bigtooth aspen, black cherry, white pine, basswood, white ash, sugar maple, green ash, American elm and red pine. They produce 1-1.5 inch nuts that germinate in the spring following burial by squirrels and other rodents. Unlike oaks with their simple leaf arrangement, hickories have compound leaves with five to seven leaflets per leaf. Species differentiation among some oak species can be difficult, and some species are known to hybridize readily. By far the most common oaks are red, white, black and northern pin oak. White oak acorns germinate soon after falling. Red oaks have pointed leaf lobes white oaks have rounded/blunt leaf lobes. Michigan oak species are divided into two subgroups - red oaks and white oaks.

The TreesĪccording to inventory data from the USDA Forest Service, Michigan forestlands have 10 species of oak and five species of hickory. The visual and aesthetic qualities of large oaks can become factors in forest management and, more commonly, in urban and residential arboriculture. Within oak-hickory types, over 60 percent of the volume is in oak or hickory species. Most of the rest occurs in northern hardwood and aspen forest types. Over 70 percent of the state’s oak volume occurs within the oak-hickory forest types. Most of the oak area grows in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Statewide, oak-hickory forest types occupy about 12 percent of the forest area. Hickories are usually a minor but important component of these forests. Some hickory species have similar environmental niches to oaks and are common associates of oaks in the southern Lower Peninsula, so the generalized forest type “oak-hickory” is frequently used. Oaks are also common components of many non-oak forest types. Michigan has a variety of forest types dominated by oaks, including oak savannahs and oak barrens.

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