New Jersey State Trees

Northern Red Oak and Flowering Dogwood

See Flowering Dogwood

See Northern Red Oak

Northern Red Oak< alt="New Jersey State Trees: Northern Red Oak" class="pictureright" height="214" src="images/red-oak.jpg" width="150" />

See Flowering Dogwood

(Quercus borealis maxima)

Adopted on June 13, 1950.

The official state tree is the red oak, Quercus borealis maxima. The red oak was authorized by a Joint Resolution signed by Governor Alfred E. Driscoll June 13, 1950.

The state memorial tree is the dogwood, authorized by Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of 1951.

Description of the New Jersey State Tree

The red oak is a hardwood tree that you can recognize by its pointy-lobed leaves with prickly tips. It produces many acorns, an important food for the Native Americans of long ago. In autumn the leaves turn a vibrant red, adding bursts of color to our rural landscapes.

Northern red oak (Quercus rubra), also known as common red oak, eastern red oak, mountain red oak, and gray oak, is widespread in the East and grows on a variety of soils and topography, often forming pure stands. Moderate to fast growing, this tree is one of the more important lumber species of red oak and is an easily transplanted, popular shade tree with good form and dense foliage.

Identification

• Leaf: Alternate, simple, 5 to 8 inches long, oblong in shape with 7 to 11 hairless bristle-tipped lobes.
• Flower: Staminate flowers borne on catkins. Pistillate flowers borne on spikes. Appears with the leaves in April or May.
• Fruit: Acorns are 3/4 to 1 inch long and nearly round. with less than 1/3 covered by the flat, saucerlike cup. The cap is flat and thick, covering about 1/4 of the acorn. Cup covered by reddish-brown, tightly overlapping scales. Matures in 2 years, ripens August to late October.
• Twig: Quite stout, red-brown and glabrous. Terminal buds are multiple, quite large, ovoid, and covered with red-brown, mostly hairless scales.
• Bark: On young stems, smooth. Older bark develops wide, flat-topped ridges and shallow furrows. The shallow furrows form a pattern resembling ski tracts.
• Form: A medium-sized to large tree that develops a short trunk and round crown when open grown, straight with a clear bole when grown with competition.

Resulution

Joint Resolution
PROCLAMATION

State of New Jersey
Executive Department

WHEREAS, The Senate and the General Assembly of this State, while sitting as the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Legislature, did concur in Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 12 resolving that

"The State of New Jersey hereby adopts the red oak -- Quercus borealis maxima (March) Ashe -- as the State tree;"

and
WHEREAS, In the preamble to said Concurrent Resolution it is declared that the red oak is a representative tree of New Jersey with beauty of structure, strength, dignity and long life, that it is most useful commercially and enjoys great freedom from disease, that it is adapted to our New Jersey soils and is compatible with all native shrubs and evergreens, permitting lawn and grass areas to be successfully grown under its canopy, and that the fall color of its foliage places it foremost in our natural landscape scene; and

WHEREAS, It is fitting that a proclamation should issue marking the aforesaid concurring action of the Senate and the General Assembly;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Alfred E. Driscoll, Governor of the State of New Jersey, do hereby proclaim that, by virtue of the concurrence of the Senate and the General Assembly while sitting as the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Legislature in Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 12, the red oak --Quercus borealis maxima (Marsh) Ashe -- stands adopted as the State tree of the State of New Jersey.

Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State of New [SEAL] Jersey, this thirteenth day of June, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty, and in the Independence of the United States, the one hundred and Seventy-fourth.

ALFRED E. DRISCOLL,
Governor.

By the Governor:
Lloyd B. Marsh,
Secretary of State.

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Northern Red Oak

New Jersey State Tree

Flowering Dogwood

See Northern Red Oak

(Cornus florida)

Adopted on January 15, 1951.

The official state tree is the red oak, Quercus borealis maxima. The red oak was authorized by a Joint Resolution signed by Governor Alfred E. Driscoll June 13, 1950. The state memorial tree is the dogwood, authorized by Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of 1951.

Description of the New Jersey State Tree

White flowers bloom in spring. Dark green foliage changes to red in fall. Red berries remain on tree late in fall.

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is one of America's most popular ornamental trees. Known to most people simply as dogwood, it has other common names, including boxwood and cornel. The species name florida is Latin for flowering, but the showy petal-like bracts are not in fact flowers. The bright red fruit of this fast-growing short-lived tree are poisonous to humans but provide a great variety of wildlife with food. The wood is smooth, hard and close-textured and now used for specialty products.

Identification

• Leaf: Opposite, simple, arcuately veined, 3 to 6 inches long, oval in shape with an entire margin.
• Flower: Very small, but surrounded by 4 large white (occasionally pink) bracts, 2 inches in diameter. Appearing March to April in the south, June in the north.
• Fruit: A shiny, oval red drupe, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, in clusters of 3 to 4. Maturing in September to October.
• Twig: Slender, green or purple, later turning gray, often with a glaucous bloom. The terminal flower buds are clove-shaped, vegetative buds resemble a cat claw.
• Bark: Gray when young, turning very scaly to blocky.
• Form: A small tree with a short trunk that branches low, producing a flat-topped crown. Branches are opposite, and assume a "candelabra" appearance.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of 1951.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of 1951.
STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced January 15, 1951
By Mrs. DWYER

Referred to Committee on Ways and Means

A Concurrent Resolution providing for the adoption of the
dogwood tree (Cornus Florida) as the New Jersey State
Memorial Tree.

WHEREAS, It is the practice of many patriotic and public-
spirited organizations and the State of New Jersey, and the State
Highway Department , to plant dogwood trees along the border of New
Jersey's Memorial Highway known as the "Blue Star Drive" in honor of
the men and women in our Armed Forces; and

WHEREAS, It is in the public interested and welfare to foster
the widespread use of the dogwood as a memorial tree in our parks,
parkways, monuments, and building sites; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Assembly of the State of New
Jersey (the Senate concurring):

1. That the dogwood tree (Cornus Florida) be and it is hereby
adopted and designated as the New Jersey State Memorial Tree.

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Flowering Dogwood

Source:
Dendrology at Virginia Tech
US Department of Agriculture