North Carolina › Fagaceae › Quercus
Black Oak
Native. The Quercus genus feeds 496 caterpillar species in NC, draws 19 bee species in the Southeast; 23 bird species have recorded feeding interactions with this genus in North America. Strong for caterpillars, bees and birds.
Insect resources, birds and habitat
Bars show recorded counts on a linear scale. Each category runs from zero to its largest count in this NC plant catalog; the same scale applies across plant pages. Compare plants within a category, not bar lengths across categories. Zero records may mean missing research. Growth form is shown as text.
Additional insect evidence
Bar length follows recorded-name count on the displayed scale, not ecological importance. Unknown is not zero support. Flower visits do not confirm feeding or pollination. Named insects may include historical or unresolved names.
Provisional additional insect credit: +0 (maximum 5). Scoring rule and limitations. Study references and interaction records are included in this plant’s data record.
Fit for your county
Start with your county. Add conditions if you know them. No address needed; entries stay in this page and are not sent to Quercus.
Overwintering: no reviewed hardiness guidance loaded. Heat tolerance is not assessed.
| NC status (state rank) | S5 |
| Grows in | unknown: no matched wetland indicator (wetland occurrence proxy: unknown; not a measured watering requirement) |
| Soil pH range | 4.5–6.5 |
| Light | part shade to full sun (Niinemets & Valladares 2006 shade tolerance 2.72/5) |
| Recorded in NC | Coastal Plain, Mountains, Piedmont; recorded in 52 counties (USDA) |
| Observed in NC | Caterpillars found on 10.5% of 379 branch surveys (Caterpillars Count!). Shown for reference; not part of the score, because survey results depend heavily on site and method. |
| Single-host caterpillars on genus | 93 |
| How the number was set | Base score 89, no adjustment (common in NC). Scoring uses relative ranks; display bars show counts. Caterpillar, bee and bird data are by genus. |
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina, plant list export 2026-09-01 (LeGrand, Sorrie & Howard)
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database, growth habit (public domain)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications
- Caterpillars Count! (UNC Chapel Hill), Foliage Arthropod Data, NC sites, accessed 2026-09-23 (CC0). Data were provided by Caterpillars Count! and the many participants who contribute to its foliage arthropod monitoring program.
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Wetland Plant List 2022, Eastern Mountains & Piedmont
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database
- Niinemets & Valladares 2006, Tolerance to shade, drought and waterlogging of temperate Northern Hemisphere trees and shrubs, Ecological Monographs (CC0 appendix)
Machine-readable: quercus-velutina.json. Cite as: Quercus Score v0.6.4, Quercus velutina, North Carolina, 2026-09-24.
Quercus Score v0.6.4 · built 2026-09-24 · North Carolina beta · sources and limitations on every page