Ozark Chinquapin in the Pineywoods of East Texas
by Leslie Bost | OCF, Science & Research
Where: Angelina County, Texas
Location Description: Dry-Sandy Mixed Upland Forest
Habitat: East Texas’ Pineywoods
Many people are unaware Ozark chinquapin are native to Texas and that remnant populations can be found in the Eastern part of the state. Nearly every year, the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation partners with private land owners to collect seed and pollen from every part of the tree’s native range in order to enrich the diversity of genetics in our breeding program. In August of 2025, OCF president Steve Bost and I went to East Texas to visit a rare population of trees on private forest land.
Photo I took of the slough (wetland) near a population of Ozark chinquapin in Angelina County, TX. Sloughs are common in the Pineywoods ecoregion of eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, and the southeastern corner of Oklahoma.
Pineywoods Ecoregion
Map showing the Pineywoods Ecoregion where Ozark chinquapin are found in several ecosystems. Ozark chinquapin in the Pineywoods ecoregion are genetically adapted for the climate of the region.
The area of East Texas we were at is located on private property within a conservation easement. The land is within the Neches River Corridor, a slow-moving river that forms the slough surrounding the high, sandy wooded area. Sloughs are kind of like swamps except they don’t always hold water. Wild Ozark chinquapin trees grow here next to pines and other hardwoods. Aside from pine and Ozark chinquapin, I saw many sweetgum, American holly, post oak, and some kind of red oak. The landowner’s goal is to conserve the native plants and ecosystems on his property. His collaboration with the OCF will help improve struggling native populations of Ozark chinquapin occupying similar habitats in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. We always look for opportunities to conserve remnant populations and utilize available seed and pollen to make seed with improved blight resistance, locally adapted to its respective environment.
This is a coppiced Ozark chinquapin we found on the property. At one point the tree was cut down and the stump put on several new shoots that grew into mature stems. This growth form is not caused by the blight. I see this a lot on Mount Magazine in Arkansas.
This is the largest Ozark chinquapin in the area and we were able to bag the ends of its fruiting branches pretty easily because several limbs branch out over the road. In the back left corner you can see another fruiting tree.
The purpose of our trip to the landowner’s property in Texas was for my dad and I to put wire mesh bags over fruiting Ozark chinquapin branches to prevent the nuts from being eaten by squirrels. In the fall, the nuts will be collected and germinated, then planted offsite for research/breeding, and also in this geographic region for targeted restoration.
We found 5 mature fruiting trees in the area; the largest tree had a 16 inch diameter breast height, and was about 40 feet tall. All of the trees get a good amount of light thanks to the opening made by the road. A fire burned through the area within the last few years and likely killed some of the little volunteer Ozark chinquapins growing around the larger trees. You may have noticed a black fire scar on the large tree (pictured above). A few of the fruiting trees look like they had been damaged in the past, one tree was leaning over and looked like it had been hit by a nearby falling tree a one point. The largest fruiting tree has a big cavity at the base and bracket mushrooms growing on a section of the middle trunk—which is not good. A few of the fruiting trees were fighting chestnut blight, although it looked like they were growing through it, and the trees were able to contain the damage. Chestnut blight-infected bark on Ozark chinquapin that are highly susceptible to the disease is lethal because they aren’t able to contain the fungal cankers on their stems and/or trunk, and the canker is able to grow large enough to completely wrap around (girdle) the stems/trunk, stopping the flow of water, sap, and nutrients up the tree to the leaves. That’s what causes the stems to die back and puts the tree in an endless cycle of growth and die back so it’s never able to mature enough to produce male and female flowers. Wild Ozark chinquapin trees with superior genetics for blight resistance (due to natural genetic variation and the right combination of many genes) are able to contain blight cankers and secrete molecules and proteins that effect disease progression and establishment. This is why I believe some trees with high levels of blight resistance have little or no signs of blight and other trees with resistance and have what I call “dry blight cankers” (walled-off cankers & stalled progression of canker development). Several of the larger trees had sections of die-back and hanging deadwood in the top. Some of the fruiting trees look stressed and may die over the next 1-5 years.
Rare, healthy fruiting Ozark chinquapin.
Picture of the base of the healthy Ozark chinquapin we found (seen in previous photo).
Ozark chinquapin tree that was hit by a falling tree and leaning over. It’s covered in water sprouts (new shoots that sprout from the trunk) and some of the stems are blighted. In spite of being stressed, the tree is producing fruit.
A small Ozark chinquapin.
A deer rubbed its antlers against this tree, stripped the bark, and blight entered the wound. The tree is healing and will hopefully recover.
When a female flower is pollinated, it matures into a prickly bur that contains a nut inside. The end of a flowering branch will have as few as 3 or as many as 15 female flowers. Sometimes only one or two female flowers are successfully pollinated, so in the fall you’ll have a cluster of burs with one or two large burs that contain a nut, and the rest of the cluster has small burs that contain a small, shriveled, unviable seed. Rain during the peak pollination window in the spring impacts pollination success by washing away pollen and preventing pollinator insects from flying. I’m not sure why so few female flowers were pollinated on the trees at this location, but it’s likely that rain was a factor. It’s also possible the female flowers on branches at the top of the tree achieved better pollination than the ones we were able to reach. We were able to put 10 wire mesh bags and hope to get around 40 nuts in the fall.
Fruiting Ozark chinquapin.
My dad (OCF President, Steve Bost) putting wire mesh bags on fruiting branches.
If you live in Texas and have Ozark chinquapin on your land, and would like to help save and restore the tree to its natural range in the state, please email ozarkchinquapininfo@gmail.com. I encourage you to share this article with anyone interested in preserving the natural heritage of East Texas.