White oak timber is valuable for ship building, furniture, barrels, baskets, and fuel. White oak acorns, a valuable wildlife food, were once widely used by Native Americans after the acorns were boiled to remove the tannin. This resource is available from southeastern Canada to mid-Florida and northwest to Minnesota. Bark of the white oak is light gray: in scaly rectangles when young--becoming ridged and shallowly fissured at maturity. Trees may achieve heights of 80-to-150 feet with diameters up to 5 feet on rich soils, sandy soil, and stony ridges. The Red Oak Group Eleven members of the red oak group are native to Florida. As mentioned earlier, all exhibit alternate leaves, pointed and/or bristle-tipped leaves and acorns which take two years to mature. The acorns of red oaks are generally bitter to the taste and frequently exhibit wooly or silky inner linings in a tough outer shell. These seeds generally germinate (sprout) in the spring.