Its colors
brick red, reddish brown, brown
When it turns here
first color about Sep 23, 2026, at its best Oct 6, 2026, fading by Oct 8, 2026, bare by Oct 18, 2026 (estimate).
this year, by the model, the forest here peaks about Oct 7, 2026.
Model of Oct 27, 2026.
How long it holds
Oaks keep dead brown leaves into winter more than most trees do (see red oak); no white-oak figure in the sources read.
Where it grows thickest
The low country of the south of the region: southwestern Maine, southern New England, New York's lowlands and Pennsylvania, just reaching southern Quebec and southern Ontario.
the low country, under 500 ft northward
its range outline comes to this page
By height
Seldom above 150 m (500 ft) in the north of its range and absent from the high mountains of New York and New England.
From the road
Whitish, ashy gray bark in scales and plates, leaves with rounded finger-like lobes, and a dull brick red late in October in the lowlands of the south.
Its pictures this autumn
Where to see it
pictures of it this autumn from …
- Poughkeepsie, the Highlands & the mid-Hudson, NY · 1 picture, newest Oct 3, 2026
- South County & the western woods, RI · 1 picture, newest Oct 1, 2026
The sources’ own words
This is a large and rather common tree in these forests. Its alternate leaves have distinctively round lobes unlike the pointed lobes of red and scarlet oaks. The foliage turns a dull to brick-red in the second half of October.
white and red oaks (reddish brown)
It is found from southwestern Maine and extreme southern Quebec, west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, to southeastern Minnesota; south to western Iowa, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; east to northern Florida and Georgia.
It is found at all altitudes in the central and southern parts of its range, but it is seldom found above 150 m (500 ft) in elevation in the northern part of its range.
It is excluded from the high Appalachians in New York and New England; but it is a scrub tree at elevations of 1370 m (4,500 ft) in the southern Appalachians (28).
Whitish or ashy gray, varying from scaly on smaller stems to irregularly platy or blocky on large stems. On older trees smooth patches are not uncommon.