The White Oaks (section Quercus)

Trees in the white oak section all have rounded lobe ends, and are all deciduous.  They all bear acorns in a single year, and acorns have knobbed cups.  Despite the fact that they can all hybridize, the species themselves tend to have markedly different habitat requirements.  Blue oaks have shallow lobes, when lobes are present at all, and generally live on dry hillsides, often with southern exposure.  Generally speaking, blue oaks are intolerant of summer water.  Valley oaks tend to live in valley bottoms, as the name implies.  They are somewhat tolerant of limited summer water.  Both blue oak and valley oak occur as solitary trees or in groups in the North Bay.  Garry (or Oregon white) oaks tend to occur primarily in woodlands on north-facing slopes.  Telling Garry oak from valley oak can be challenging, but in general garry oak has a fatter acorn and narrow sinuses (the spaces between leaf lobes) than valley oaks.  Valley oaks tend to have long, narrow very pointed acorns and broad leaf sinuses.

All trees from this section are functionally resistant to sudden oak death.