Not post oak, that one has cruciform leaves and is a white oak. Yours looks like a red oak, it has bristles.Possibly southern red oak, hard to tell, the foliage doesn't seem to be fully expanded yet.

This one has me shaking my head. It looks to have the genetics of nigra, velutina, & marilandica; I can't sort it out though.

Dax

Q.falcata.

Have them in spades here. Seedling leaves don't always match up with what you expect to see on a mature specimen.

Have been grafting a bunch of them in the fencerow over to a couple of Q. nutalli selections over the past couple of weeks.

Thanks, Lucky.

Dax

Thanks! I am near the northern limit of that species, yet as I said, it's the only oak aggressively colonizing around here. There are a lot of blue jays in my garden and I've read they can help oaks spread. I wonder where the parent trees are: this would be unlikely to be a planted tree somewhere, it seems. I've never seen one for sale at a nursery. Pin, scarlet and red oaks seem to be the only common red oaks sold. And certainly around here people are even less likely to plant an unusual, hard to obtain native than say, Towson, MD. It's incredibly unusual to see an unusual plant in a yard LOL...with the exception being the fact we get a curious mix of northern and southern species. Plants like common horsechestnut are much more common here and in the Philly suburbs than in the DC suburbs; conversely, crape myrtles are more common here than in the Philly suburbs, more along the lines of DC.

So is it generally true that only the red oak family have the suede-like look on young leaves?

I've been somewhat surprised to see potted Q.falcata seedlings offered at several big-box stores this spring!

david,

Q.dentata, aka Daimyo oak, a member of the white oak group, has leaves that are pretty fuzzy(pubescent).

I would almost always defer to lucky on anything to do with ID's but this looks more like marylandica to me. Quite strongly, too. While some of the leaves do have that elongated falcata look to them, the majority look like blackjack foliage to me.

ps - like some others above, I am surrounded by falcata and marylandica. I have quite a few seedling/sapling trees with nearly identical foliage and they are all blackjack =)

I've included a few current Q. falcata seed from my region. This is the only orange endosperm species native in my area.

jOndO3

I'm backing off my adamant opinion on the ID.

Drove past some of those 'falcata' seedlings I've been topworking, this afternoon... Some, I'm still certain are falcata... but some... I'm thinking are beginning to look more like marilandica... but that one is exceedingly rare around here... I only know of one blackjack oak in the entire county that I can drive right to... and none anywhere on the farm here...

Lucky

There are a few blackjacks in my area but southern red oak is the most common red oak species. I've got southern reds native on my place but no blackjacks native although I have a planted one. Southern reds are prolific, I find loads of volunteers. The first year seedling foliage on SOME CAN look like mature blackjack foliage, but I watched them for 30 years and they always turn into southern red oaks lol. The other day I found my first blackjack seedling. My planted tree has been fruiting for several years and I've had my eye out but this is a first. There is no mistaking, the seedling is definitely blackjack, its foliage looks exactly like the parent tree. Around here, southern red oak blooms way earlier than blackjack, some years getting frozen. I think the tree in the OP is probably falcata or a hybrid, but I'm no oak expert.

Some stem/trunk pics might help. Blackjacks are pretty distinctive even when young.

Offhand I would go with falcata. Has the most variable leaf configurations of all the red oaks. The old name for it was Quercus triloba, describing the three-lobed leaves which are typical on young trees and lower branches. We get 17 species of oaks in South Jersey, tho some very rare and two are shrubs. Lots of confusing hybrids. Don't usually get marilandica growing naturally near falcata, habitat differs, but it happens.

Well at this point, if I were you, I'd take falcata as the ID =)

Could you post some pics after the foliage has fully expanded?

Sure, I'll see what I can do. Not today, rainy as anyone watching the Preakness probably knows. But Q. falcata or Q. marilandica both seem plausible to me.

Falcata is more likely.

Of all places, a local Walmart has about 2 dozen falcata's for sale although they are all sold as "clumps" which is kinda strange

Yeah, I saw 'em at Walmart, Lowe's, and Rural King... but didn't notice any as 'clumps'...but I didn't look closely at 'em - knew I wasn't buying as I've got 'em coming out the wazoo around here.