From what little details I can pick out, it does look like White Oak (Quercus alba) to me. The red fall colors also lean towards White Oak.

Does look like a white oak. Would like to take a look at the bark as well. would help w/ the id.

I think it is more likely to be a POST oak. Can't really see the elaves too well but white oak occurence in florida, according to the USFS silvics manual is only a very small part of the state.

I'm going to say it's white oak. They are rare in north Florida, but being this is at a rest stop, it was probably planted and not naturally occurring.

I don't know if this tree was planted after they built the rest stop or if they built the rest stop among the naturally occurring trees, Alabama. The bark had the typical vertical look that all the members of the white oak group have, jqpublic. If it's a post oak, quirkyquercus, then it's leaves retain a more juvenile look - the mature post oaks on my property are roughly cross shaped, with the middle lobe being somewhat blunted. I went outside and got some leaves of what I've always considered to be a bluff oak - here's a picture with some of my post oak leaves (they never have good fall color) on the left and bluff oak leaves on the right - my bluff oaks get some pretty red color each fall -
{{gwi:501283}}
Sherry

The leaves on the left resemble post oak. I think the chances of a white oak planted on purpose in florida is even lower than finding one in the woods. I'm not insisting I'm right or anything just that when you can't see the leaves or other features the only thing you got to go on is what is it most likely to be.

Yep, it looks definitely like a White Oak (Quercus alba).
Post Oak does not have branches that thin and does not have leaves that are that light and thin. White Oaks do grow in much of the Florida panhandle.

I live only one mile from the Florida state line, and all of the ones I see were intentionally planted (usually in parks, cemeteries, schoolyards, etc). I don't think I have ever seen one in the woods.

Sherry, you'd better get those acorns in the ground or in big containers quick. They will have a taproot 7-8 inches long by spring. I collected about six of them (from a cemetery) and all of them were sprouting by the time I could get them planted.

I know what you mean, Alabama! One of my acorns has already sprouted, but it's from a group of acorns that I picked up from a tree that was growing in my daughter's neighborhood. This tree was growing along a line of young live oaks, but the leaves were different, so I just had to pick up some acorns from it.
The rest stop where this tree grows looked new, whereas the tree was big with age on it, so it seems more likely to me that it was a naturally occurring tree. My book Trees of Georgia and Adjacent States shows the range of white oak as dipping down into the central part of the panhandle - it doesn't occur in the part of the panhandle near you, Alabama, so that would explain why you don't see them there.
When we stopped at a different rest stop in the central part of the panhandle on the way back, I found another tree just like it, only with a lot more acorns underneath it, so I picked up a lot from that tree. The leaves, bark and acorns were identical to the one in the picture, so I didn't take a picture of it. Here's a picture of the acorns from the two trees, the ones on the left from the Appalachicola tree, and the ones (more) on the right from the other one.
{{gwi:501285}}
I better get out there and plant those acorns!
Sherry

They maybe rare to see but White Oaks do grow in at least 12 counties in Florida. The one at the rest stop was likely left when they built the stop possibly in the 50s or 60s. And it maybe an all alone White Oak in the area from others being logged.
Here is the native range of White Oaks and what counties they are growing in also:
{{gwi:501288}}

Yes, treeguy, the counties shown (near Tallahassee) are where these trees were growing, all along I-10.
I've gotten the white oak acorns planted, now I'll go out and plant some more - this is so much fun! :)
Sherry

Could easily be a natural post/white oak hybrid. The acorns look more like post oak to me.

Sherry & Alabama: I haven't planted acorns before. You all are having a ball.

Do you put them in the fridge for a few weeks? Do you plant them in pots or directly in the ground where you want them to grow? Approximately how many acorns grow into trees (v. being eaten by critters and other dangers)?

It's supposed to warm up this weekend, so this is a good time to find some acorns.

Thanks!
Pam

If you put them in the fridge, they'll dry out and die. You can either start them in pots indoors or plant them outside, where they'll emerge in the spring. If you choose the latter, you'll need to cover the ground with some sort of wire mesh to keep the critters from eating them all.

The acorns are all gone by now.

I plant them in pots, which I keep outside. I planted several acorns in big 3-gallon pots, labeled them, and when they come up next spring, I'll either pull out the weaker seedlings and throw them away, or, if more than one looks really vigorous, I'll dig up the extras out of the pot and plant them in another pot. When an oak tree has enough roots on it to fill out a three-gallon pot is the best time for me to plant it, since it takes that much root system to keep an armadillo from digging it up.
The only problem is keeping squirrels from digging in the pots - I think I'm going to cover them with some type mesh material, which I'll secure with clothes pins.
Sherry

Sherry. Thanks for the advice about planting in large pots right away and how to keep the critters out. I remember discussions about people putting acorns in a pot of water to find out which are viable. I'll check some old cemeteries this weekend. Your enthusiasm is catching!

Quercus - There are still plenty of acorns here. Some trees are still losing leaves and we just had our first frost.

Pam, put your acorns in a bowl of water and let them soak for about 12 hours first. The ones that sink should be good. Take your finger and tap the ones that are floating, if they seem like they want to sink but slowly come back up, they are probably okay too. The ones that quickly pop back up to the surface will be duds. If you have Red oak acorns, you can put them in a ziplock bag with moist potting mix in the drawer of your fridge until spring. White oak acorns need to be planted immediately.

I was at Wal-Mart yesterday in Pensacola, and in the parking lot island were several Live oaks. The ground underneath had almost a carpet of acorns, I have never seen that many. I guess it was because the squirrels couldn't get to them.

Alabama, I got some live oak acorns in Mobile at a Burger King of all places! The ground was covered with acorns, as was the ground in every place I went!
Pam, I also add some chicken manure in with the potting soil as I pot trees into bigger pots - it causes both the roots and the tops to grow at such a fast rate, my trees are ready to plant (three-gallon, anti-armadillo size) in a year or less. Chicken manure works better for me than any artificial fertilizers I've ever used.
Sherry

Wow! The acorns here were all gone by early October!

I can make out several leaves from the photos and I see no sign of it being a Post Oak or any of the closely related species to Post Oak. Also, the acorns look very typical for White Oak to me.

You can put both White Oak group and Red Oak group acorns into a plastic zip-lock bag with some moist(not wet) peat moss or sand and put it in your refrigerator for 2 to 4 months before planting. Many of the White Oak group will sprout root radicals, but that's no problem as long as the bag is big enough for the root not to be too confined that it starts to circle tightly.

quercus_macrocarpa, the acorn crop tends to mature from North to South in most of the Eastern US. With the crop starting in September in the North and ending in December in the deep South (although it's not uniform and more of a general rule of thumb than a law on how the acorn crop matures). The majority of the acorn crop(what little there was this year) here(Kansas) was mostly finished about 3 weeks ago.

Sherry: You inspired me to hunt for acorns today. I went to a place where there are condos and lots of trees. In less than an hour, I collected several ziploc bags of acorns and a bag of hickory nuts. I took a camera so I could do what you did (take photos of the oaks) but this place hires people to blow leaves (and acorns) off the roads so you don't really know which acorns came from which tree. I've gone through my tree ID books but still have questions.

Alabama: Thanks for the advice about soaking acorns. I need to figure out which are red oaks v. white oaks so I can get the white oaks planted ASAP. One group look like the acorns Sherry posted above.

* Longleaf Pines

Alabama: Our county forester is coming to do a site visit on Wednesday re: longleaf pines. (yeah!!!) Although the VA state nursery didn't offer longleaf seedlings this year as planned, he said he can get seedlings - I need to decide how many I need. After I learn more, I may post on the Conifers forum - this is such an important issue in the Southeast. Last month, Virginia had a two day conference about re-establishing longleaf pines. I'll bet the same thing is going on all over this region.

I'll always be grateful to you for telling me (and showing me) longleaf pines. I'm hooked.

Take care,
Pam