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United States / Grow / chinquapin oak

chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

chinquapin oak

Quercus muehlenbergii · Fagaceae · all Quercus records · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Yes, chinquapin oak is rated fire resistant, though that judgment rests on limited primary evidence.

The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs give it the most favorable category on their four-point scale. Ohio State University Extension rates it “L flammability,” or low flammability, which falls on the recommended side of its five-band scale. One source is a curated selector for the eastern United States, while the Ohio rating reflects expert experience in the Midwest. Although their methods and labels differ, both institutions reach the same practical conclusion.

Chinquapin oak is a tree in the beech family that matures at about 40 feet. It grows in full sun, requires moderate water, and is hardy to USDA zone 5a. Both sources also associate it with alkaline soil, and the Forest Service and Firewise programs describe it as the only oak in their selection that grows well under those conditions. For homeowners choosing a tree, the available guidance consistently supports treating chinquapin oak as fire resistant.

Form
tree
Mature height
~40 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Ohio / Midwest; eastern US
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Ohio / Midwest; eastern US
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source
  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, CT, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

32

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

32 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kansas (KS)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • Nebraska (NE)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New Mexico (NM)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (2)

Same genus in the directory · the Quercus group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Quercus muehlenbergii (Chinquapin oak). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/quercus-muehlenbergii/. Last verified 2026-08-23.