Editing Quercus alba (section)

=== Food ===
The acorns are much less bitter than the acorns of red oaks. They can be eaten by humans but, if bitter, may need to have the tannins leached.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Elias|first1=Thomas S.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/244766414|title=Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods|last2=Dykeman|first2=Peter A.|publisher=[[Sterling Publishing|Sterling]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4027-6715-9|location=New York|pages=228, 231|oclc=244766414|orig-year=1982}}</ref> They are also a valuable wildlife food, notably for turkeys, wood ducks, pheasants, grackles, jays, nuthatches, thrushes, woodpeckers, rabbits, squirrels, deer, and black bear.  The white oak is the only known food plant of the ''[[Bucculatrix luteella]]'' and ''Bucculatrix ochrisuffusa'' caterpillars.

The young shoots of many eastern oak species are readily eaten by deer.<ref name="Houston">Houston, David R. 1971. Noninfectious diseases of oaks. In: Oak symposium: Proceedings; 1971 August 16–20; Morgantown, WV. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 118-123. [9088]</ref>  Dried oak leaves are also occasionally eaten by white-tailed deer in the fall or winter.<ref name="Van Lear 1983">Van Lear, David H.; Johnson, Von J. 1983. Effects of prescribed burning in the southern Appalachian and upper Piedmont forests: a review. Forestry Bull. No. 36. Clemson, SC: Clemson University, College of Forest and Recreation Resources, Department of Forestry. 8 p. [11755]</ref>  Rabbits often browse twigs and can girdle stems.<ref name="Houston" />