Rainmaker Oak Hybrid (Quercus alba x lyrata)

 Toxey, Mr. Fox, some local tree nerds, and the owners of a behemoth, open grown white oak have for years agreed something was unique about this old pasture-tree’s personality.  They also took note of its track record for heavy acorn production and deer preference.  Despite reservations from both in-house and borrowed experts regarding their theory that this oak had mixed parentage, its progeny and a couple of recent, nearby hybrid finds that more closely resembled overcup oak solved the mystery.  The seedlings don’t come close to resembling a young white oak’s pink and fuzzy emerging leaves, but have shiny, purple tinged new growth.  The Stevens Oak is indeed a white oak crossed with overcup!  Although the parent tree and its acorns more closely resemble a true white oak, the seedlings take on a fairly uniform "half and half" look, and grow much more vigorously than both white and overcup. Until we’ve had time to experiment with these seedlings on a poorly drained overcup site, we rec