Who can help?
I'm not quite sure if these are little bur oaks or little swamp white oaks. (I've ruled out red oaks because their leaves are very pointy.) These little trees don't have acorns, so I can't use them to help in identification.
The large bur oaks have already turned plain brown and lost their leaves. These little trees are turning red and still have their leaves.
Swamp white oaks have this shape of leaves and turn crimson in the
fall, but I haven't found any adult swamp white oaks in our
neighborhood.
My guess is Northern Red Oak, but I'll check back here to see what others say. Here's a nice site for comparing oaks http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/compare-oaks.htm
Posted by: Kathy | October 24, 2006 at 10:28 AM
I think oaks are known to be a bit difficult to identify correctly. I would agree with Kathy, it is probably a red oak. We had a neighbor who transplanted an oak from a woods and in spite of asking everyone, including the cooperative extension service, he never could get a definite answer on what kind of oak it was.
Posted by: Carol | November 03, 2006 at 04:27 AM
Kathy & Carol: You're both probably right - they're probably red oaks. In our neighborhood, we have fully grown red, pin and bur oaks, so that is the most likely answer. Although I'd like to think there was a fourth variety (swamp white oak), I'll have to stick with the law of averages and agree that they're little red oaks.
Posted by: Tracy | November 07, 2006 at 09:59 AM