Featured Tree

bur oak The Bur Oak at Johnson Elementary School

Check out the video!




To help identify this tree we examined its acorn. The twisted bristles on its cap give the tree its common name, Bur Oak.





The Bur Oak leaf has rounded lobes and a cross shape similar to the more common Post Oak.

The Bur Oak at Johnson Elementary School
Quercus macrocarpa

On May 27, 16 students from Ms. Lovett's third grade class documented a giant Bur Oak tree growing behind their school. They measured it to be:
Johnson students

Circumference: 147 inches
Height: 77 feet
Crown spread: 90 feet

TOTAL POINTS: 247


This Bur Oak is the:

  • 4th LARGEST in Virginia.
  • 3rd TALLEST in Virginia
  • 3rd LARGEST CROWN (canopy) in Virginia
  • 4th LARGEST circumference in Virginia

MEASURING ITS BENEFIT: 11 degrees COOLER under this tree!
3:30 pm on May 27, 2011, we measured the air temperature:

  • UNDER the tree it was 78.5 degrees
  • IN THE OPEN, but near the tree was 89.5 degrees

This tree is a GIANT!
It has the third biggest crown (canopy) of any Bur Oak in Virginia!
Under this broad canopy students, teachers and parents explored the habitat to see what lives with it. The students recorded a blue jay, ground bees, poison ivy, English ivy, a variety of ants, flies, several types of grasses, mushrooms, moths, violets, wild strawberries, buttercup, sorrel, some exposed roots and the sticks, leaves, and acorn parts from last year's growth. In the tree we found eggs and small insects on nearly every leaf. It is clear that this amazing tree supports a great deal of wildlife in this schoolyard!


on bur oak

Bur Oak leaves seen here in "rubbings' by the students, have rounded lobes (it's in the white oak family) with a cross shape and look similiar to a post oak.

Drawings by Johnson students illustrate the Bur Oak shape, bark and parts they found on the tree.

Learn more about this amazing tree on the
Blue Ridge Discovery Center blog

and on the Channel 29 news