Quercus

One of the most majestic native North American oaks — a slow-growing, long-lived member of the white oak group that the Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 60-80 feet (occasionally to 150) with an equally broad, rounded crown. Named for its large acorns whose cups are fringed with a mossy, bur-like scale near the rim. Notably drought- and clay-tolerant, it ranges from southeastern Canada through the central United States, and may take up to 35 years to bear its first acorn crop.

The signature evergreen oak of the California coast and foothills — a broad-canopied tree with dense, dark, holly-like leaves whose spiny-toothed margins curl under, and a short, often massive trunk. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents it growing 20-50 feet high and wide, with old specimens reaching 100 feet and living for centuries. A keystone wildlife tree: its acorns and dense canopy feed and shelter Oak Titmouse, scrub and Steller's jays, chestnut-backed chickadee, and roughly 30 other bird species, and it is a larval host for three duskywing and sister butterflies.

A fast-growing native canopy oak of eastern North America with bristle-tipped lobed leaves, brilliant reddish-brown fall color, and strong urban tolerance — among the most plantable oaks for residential and street use where space allows. Hosts the same hairstreak / duskywing / imperial moth Lepidoptera community as other oaks per NC State, though acorns are more tannin-bitter than white oak and require more leaching for human food use.

The only native oak of British Columbia and Washington and the principal oak of Oregon — a slow-growing, deeply tap-rooted deciduous tree with deeply lobed, rounded-lobe glossy leaves and a broad, rugged, rounded crown. It is the keystone of the Pacific Northwest oak savanna, providing acorns and cover for deer, small mammals, and birds. Notably drought-adapted: it wants dry summer soil and resents irrigation.

An iconic evergreen oak of the southeastern coastal plain — sprawling massive trees draped with Spanish moss define the Southern landscape. Long-lived (300-500+ years in undisturbed sites) with horizontal limbs extending 80+ feet from the trunk in mature specimens. Salt-tolerant + hurricane-resistant (the canonical coastal-plain canopy tree). Like all oaks, supports hundreds of Lepidoptera species.

A long-lived native deciduous canopy tree of eastern North America with rounded crown, deeply lobed leaves, and one of the highest documented Lepidoptera-host counts of any North American native tree (oaks support 500+ butterfly and moth species per Doug Tallamy). Acorns are sweet (edible after leaching) and the foundation forage of the eastern hardwood food web — woodpeckers, blue jays, wild turkey, deer, and black bear all rely on the mast. Plants for centuries, not decades.