What killed this oak?

[scgargoyle]

I've lost a number of red oaks around my place in SC, but this one is different. I'm not sure which species it is- maybe black oak? The top has been dying for a few years, like the others. This summer, during a really bad drought, the lower half suddenly died, practically over night. A few weeks later, the bark started falling off. Under the bark is fairly smooth, and about the color of concrete. It's also very hard. None of my other trees exhibited this- never seen it before. Anyone ever seen this?



 

[WV Mountaineer]

That pic is an example of what happens to dead trees.  Not what killed the tree. The tree has been dead or dying for a lot longer than you give it credit for.  You are just know noticing it.

I'm not sure what killed it.  No one can be unless they looked at personally.  Then, I likely wouldn't know as my Entomology and Mycology skills left long ago.  And, were limited when I had them.  But, what ever caused it's death , you are looking at the result of what happens when they die.  It is obvious it has had some bug activity but, likely what we are seeing from that pic didn't occur until the tree was inevitably gone anyways.  It is just to hard to say what did kill it.  But, that pic is the result of the tree dying. Not necessarily the cause.  Most likely not the cause really.  God Bless

[scgargoyle]

I knew the tree was dying. I've lost a lot of red oak over the last 5 years or so. The best can find is oak decline, caused by drought stress. We had a number of years of drought here in the south east. What was different with this tree is that about 50% of it was still leafed out, and then it turned brown seemingly over night. None of the others did this, or lost the bark so quickly. The bottom half of this tree looked normal until August. We'll be taking it down soon, and I'm curious to see what it looks like inside.

[WDH]

Looks like hypoxylon canker.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hypoxylon+canker+in+oak&biw=1280&bih=865&tbm=isch&imgil=8mnj32f09YCCwM%253A%253BLcSzre8tZ-0XqM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.preservationtree.com%25252Fblog%25252Fhypoxylon-canker-in-oaks-part-1&source=iu&pf=m&fir=8mnj32f09YCCwM%253A%252CLcSzre8tZ-0XqM%252C_&usg=__AeJsdpjxF6b3sMOBfKoXvLnzWj4%3D&ved=0CDsQyjdqFQoTCJ6Lr7-XpsgCFUMWPgodfjkBzA&ei=ALoPVp6LJcOs-AH-8oTgDA#imgrc=8mnj32f09YCCwM%3A&usg=__AeJsdpjxF6b3sMOBfKoXvLnzWj4%3D

[samandothers]

Looks like you will get plenty of rain this weekend.  Too bad it is all at once. 

[scgargoyle]

That sure looks like it- thanks WDH!

As for rain- we're at about 6" since Friday. Now the problem is trees falling over due to the saturated ground. It's amazing how little rain our exact area had this summer. There were rains within a mile all summer long, while we sat under the dome. I'm worried about our remaining red oaks. At times this summer, the leaves were actually curling due to dryness, while the white oaks looked just fine. The poplars looked pretty stressed, too, and dropped a lot of leaves early.