Quercus × hawkinsiae Sudw.

Sponsor

Kindly sponsored by
The Trees and Shrubs Online Oak Consortium

The International Dendrology Society, The Wynkcoombe Arboretum, and several private individuals

Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2026)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2026), 'Quercus × hawkinsiae' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-x-hawkinsiae/). Accessed 2026-07-21.

Family

Fagaceae

Genus

Quercus
Subgen. Quercus, Sect. Lobatae
Q. rubra × Q. velutina

Common Names

Hawkins Oak

Synonyms

Quercus × porteri Trel.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

hybrid: Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).

References

Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2026)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2026), 'Quercus × hawkinsiae' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-x-hawkinsiae/). Accessed 2026-07-21.

Quercus × hawkinsiae at Wynkcoombe Arboretum, West Sussex, UK. August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

Tree to 25 m tall, 1 m dbh. Bark grey-brown, smooth when young, becoming cracked into vertical ridges. Leaves ovate to obovate in outline, to 16 × 14 cm and probably more. They are shallowly to deeply 3–4-lobed on each side, the sinuses reaching up to ¾ of the way to the midrib, the lobes ending in 1 to several bristle-tipped teeth, apex often 3-lobed, base rounded to truncate. Autumn colour is often red. Petiole slender, to 5 cm. Fruits normally solitary on a stout peduncle of about 1 cm, cup saucer-shaped, 1 × 2 cm, acorns ovoid-oblong, 2 × 2 cm, about ¼ enclosed in the cup and ripening the second year. (Sudworth 1917).

Distribution United States Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee

USDA Hardiness Zone 5

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

This hybrid can be difficult to distinguish from the parents. Sudworth (1917) noted that the leaves generally resemble those of Quercus rubra, but some can be closer to Q. velutina, and that the acorns resemble those of Q. rubra but are smaller.

In the UK, two trees at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, were 11 m × 23 cm in 2021 and 4 m × 4 cm respectively in 2008. At Wynkcoombe Arboretum, West Sussex, it was 4 m × 6 cm in 2017 (The Tree Register 2025).

Trees are recorded at Cornell Botanic Garden, New York, New York Botanical Garden, and Starhill Forest Arboretum, Illinois. At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, an impressive specimen was 28.6 m tall, with a 36.2 m canopy spread in 2019. Despite storm damage in August 2019 that created a metre-wide crack in its trunk and required the placement of steel rods through the trunk for support, it remains one of the highlights of the Garden’s oak collection (Cameron 2022; Schmidt 2019).

Quercus × hawkinsiae was named after Mrs Eugene Hawkins who discovered it in West Tennessee in 1912, growing close to trees of the parents. She noticed that in a tree thought to be Q. rubra, the flesh of the mature acorns was deep yellow (normally red in Q. rubra). The epithet is sometimes spelt ‘hawkinsii’ (e.g. Jensen 1997 and on the plaque identifying it at Brooklyn Botanic Garden). It was originally published as ‘hawkinsi’, though Sudworth (1917) indicated that he chose the name ‘in honor of its discoverer, Mrs. Eugene Hawkins’ (substantival epithets take the genitive inflection appropriate to the gender and number of the person honoured, in this case -ae) (Turland et al. 2025).

Coloured young foliage of the second flush of Quercus × hawkinsiae at Wynkcoombe Arboretum, West Sussex, UK. August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

One of the Quercus × hawkinsiae at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

The matt-green leaves of Quercus × hawkinsiae show the influence of Q. rubra. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

Quercus × hawkinsiae leaf undersides at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK in August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

Quercus × hawkinsiae bark at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. August 2021. Image Maricela Rodriguez.

Quercus × hawkinsiae foliage at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK, in 2010. Image © Jan De Langhe, Ghent University Botanical Garden, 2010.

Quercus × hawkinsiae (centre) at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Quercus × hawkinsiae at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Long limbs on Quercus × hawkinsiae at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Quercus × hawkinsiae trunk at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Quercus × hawkinsiae foliage at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Buds on Quercus × hawkinsiae at Brooklyn Botanic Garden show affinity to the Q. velutina parent; 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

Quercus × hawkinsiae mispelt on the plaque identifying it at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 24 July 2021. Image Roderick Cameron.

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