Black Oak is one of the climax forest trees and it has a large native range from southern Maine to northwest Florida to east Texas & Oklahoma & Kansas, most of Iowa to central Wisconsin to southern Michigan to a tiny bit of southeast Ontario. I have not found this species just growing everywhere, as its very similar sister of Northern Red Oak. I've only seen it as a wild tree growing in acid, sandy or dry soils, such as around the Indiana Dunes, in the serpentine barrens of southeast PA, and the acid sandy soils of Delaware. It develops a deep taproot, so it has not been used by the conventional nursery industry as a shade tree for planting in landscapes. There are a good number of the native plant nurseries that grow some in large pots for sale. It grows about 2 feet/year and lives about 150 to 200 years. The leaves of Black Oak are a little larger than Northern Red Oak to about 10 inches long by 7 inches wide and it has less lobes and sinuses, being usually 7 lobes to 9 while Northern Red Oak usually has 9 to 11 lobes with more sinuses.

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