Have you ever noticed the way a single oak tree can have differently-shaped leaves?

Many trees, including oaks, have broader "shade leaves" lower on the trunk and narrower "sun leaves" higher on the tree. This comes in handy when you're trying to identify an oak based on its leaves: while the shade leaves can get a little funky, the sun leaves tend to be the most distinctive and true to type. If you poke around in the leaf litter for sun leaves, it'll help narrow down your ID! Here, NCBG research botanist Scott Ward (@newyork_botany) gets into a couple of common native red oaks in our area: pagoda oak (Quercus pagoda, also known as cherrybark oak) and southern red oak (Quercus falcata). Their shade leaves can look super similar, but their sun leaves are easier to tell apart: southern red oak tends to have distinctive, three-lobed sun leaves, with a sickle-shaped central lobe. Pagoda oak sun leaves typically have between 7 and 11 lobes! Another rule of thumb is that pagoda oak leaf bases tend to be more V-shaped than southern red oak, which usually has more U-shaped leaf bases. They also generally live in slightly different habitats: pagoda oak is most common in bottomland forests, and southern red oak is more of an upland species. (But, as ever, there are exceptions: both species can be found in higher and drier or lower and wetter habitats.) Dig into oak identification on our Flora of the Southeastern US site: fsus.ncbg.unc.edu.