The bur oak is very cold-hardy, drought-tolerant, and adaptable to many soils, including thin soils and heavy clay hardpan, both of which are found in Riverwoods. It prefers well-drained soil and is intolerant of flooding. Plant it away from areas that collect water..
It is slow-growing, and one of the most difficult oaks to transplant. Its leaves are leather, up to a foot long, and turn yellow-brown in the fall.
The bur oak grows to about 80 feet in height in this area. It has the largest acorns of any native oak.
Bur oaks can live to be several hundred years old.
(That's an image of a bur oak leaf that appears at the bottom of the left hand column of the main pages of this site.)
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