Red Oak Woods Restoration at Mockernut Hill Botanical Garden

The red oak woods of north-central Florida represent a unique and severely imperiled natural community. This forest type once covered extensive areas of the region's uplands, but most of it was cleared so that its superior soils could be used for cotton production in the 1800s. Much of the remainder has been cleared for other types of development and the few tracts that are left have been severely degraded by fire suppression.

This loss is particularly tragic in red oak woods are beautiful park-like environments that could be an aesthetically pleasing low-maintenance landscape asset as buffer areas around homes and offices. The red oaks themselves are impressive high-branched, long-lived deciduous shade trees with strong storm-resistant wood. They share the canopy with equally strong and long-lived mockernut hickories, post oaks, and longleaf pines. The hickories turn gold in the autumn and the midstory dogwoods light up the forest in the spring. Spanish moss festoons the trees and a wide variety of flowering shrubs and wildflowers add color to an open understory dominated by handsome native grasses.

MHBG is taking the leadership role in researching the ecology and species composition of this almost-lost forest type, developing techniques for growing and replanting the constituent plants, restoring and interpreting demonstration sites, educating the public about this community, and promoting use of red oak wood species in landscaping.

Involvement in restoration and landscape use of the red oak woods is a regionally appropriate expression of MHBG's commitment to ecological enhancement of corporate lands in that this was the dominant original forest type in the areas of Ocala and Gainesville where office and industrial park development is focused.