JFS-KW3
Quercus macrocarpa × Quercus macrocarpa — two unnamed, unpatented bur oaks
The record
- Parentage
- Quercus macrocarpa × Quercus macrocarpa — two unnamed, unpatented bur oaks
- Origin
- J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. · Observed at Boring, Oregon
- Rights
- patented — US Plant Patent PP22,815. Sold under the Urban Pinnacle® mark by J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. Check the current term before propagating.
- Also known as
- Urban Pinnacle®
- Form
- Upright oval with a strong central leader, about 55 feet by 25
- Foliage
- Glossy green, yellow in autumn, resistant to mildew and anthracnose
- Acorn
- About half an inch across — extremely small for a bur oak, and marketed as such
- Tolerance
- Heat and drought tolerant once established
Description
The entry that shows most plainly why an oak cultivar list is not a crop list.
Bur oak is the best acorn species in the white group — the standout for low tannin, the species behind ‘Ashworth’. This is a bur oak cultivar, a controlled cross between two bur oaks, and among the traits it was selected and is sold for is producing acorns half an inch across, described in the catalogue copy as extremely small for the species and welcome for leaving less litter on the pavement.
That is a perfectly good street tree and a completely inverted set of goals. A grower shopping for acorns from a shade-tree catalogue can buy, in good faith, a cultivar of exactly the right species bred to do exactly the wrong thing. It is worth knowing that the selection pressure on nearly every named oak in the trade has been applied by municipalities, not by anyone eating the crop.
Where to find it
No source recorded. That does not mean the cultivar is unavailable, only that this record does not yet name a nursery carrying it. Point us at one and it goes in.