in diameter, slender spreading branches, and branchlets coated at first
with pale tomentum, becoming during their first winter pubescent or
remaining tomentose at the apex, bright red-brown, glabrous, lustrous,
olive-green or orange-brown during their second season and ultimately
darker; east of the Mississippi River often a shrub spreading into broad
thickets by prolific stolons, with numerous intricately branched stems
often only 4° or 5° tall. Winter-buds ovoid, or oval, about ⅛′ long,
clothed when they first appear in summer with thick hoary tomentum,
becoming red during the winter and scurfy-pubescent. Bark ½′—1′ thick,
light brown tinged with red, slightly furrowed and broken on the surface
into loose plate-like scales. Wood light, hard, strong, coarse-grained,
dark brown, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of
annual growth; used for fence-posts, rails, and railway-ties. The sweet
nuts are sold in the markets of the western and southern states.
Distribution. Dry sandy ridges, rich hillsides and the borders of
swamps; southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania to central (Lake County)
and western Florida and westward through the Gulf States to the valley
of the Neches River, Texas, and through Arkansas to eastern Oklahoma and
southwestern Missouri; on the Appalachian Mountains ascending to
altitudes of 4500°; most abundant and of its largest size in southern
Arkansas and eastern Texas.
3. Castanea alnifolia Nutt. Chinquapin.
A low shrub spreading into broad thickets by underground stems, with
leaves pale pubescent on the lower surface; and distributed in the
neighborhood of the coast from the valley of the Cape Fear River, North
Carolina, to southern Georgia. Passing into
Castanea alnifolia var. floridana Sarg. Chinquapin.
[Illustration: Fig. 218]
Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, acute, acuminate or rounded at apex,
gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, irregularly
sinuate-toothed with apiculate teeth, hoary tomentose below when they
unfold, soon glabrous with the exception of the last leaves of vigorous
summer shoots, and at maturity thin, glabrous, dark green above, light
green and lustrous below, 3′—4′ long and 1′—1¾′ wide; petioles stout,
glabrous, about 1/12′ in length. Flowers: staminate aments pale
pubescent, 4′—5′ long; androgynous aments pubescent, as long or rather
longer with ten or twelve involucres of pistillate flowers below the
middle, often only the lowest being fertilized. Fruit: involucre
1-seeded, subglobose to short-oblong, pale tomentose, ¾′ to 1¼′ in
diameter, covered with stout pubescent scattered spines divided at base
into numerous branches; nut ovoid, terete, acute, dark chestnut-brown,
lustrous, ½′ to nearly ¾′ in length.
A tree occasionally 40°—45° high, with a tall trunk sometimes a foot in
diameter, small irregularly spreading branches forming a narrow head,
and slender glabrous or rarely pilose red-brown branchlets; more often a
shrub sometimes with broader obovoid leaves sometimes puberulous on the
lower surface.
Dry sandy soil; coast of North Carolina, near Wrightsville, New Hanover
County; Dover, near the Ogechee River, Screven County, Georgia;
Jacksonville, Duval County, and Panama City on Saint Andrew’s Bay, Bay
County, Florida; near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; and Covington, St.
Tammany Parish, Louisiana.
A tree only on the shores of Saint Andrew’s Bay.
3. CASTANOPSIS Spach.
Trees, with scaly bark, astringent wood, and winter-buds covered by
numerous imbricated scales. Leaves convolute in the bud, 5-ranked,
coriaceous, entire or dentate, penniveined, persistent; stipules obovate
or lanceolate, scarious, mostly caducous. Flowers in 3-flowered cymes,
or the pistillate rarely solitary or in pairs, in the axils of minute
bracts, on slender erect aments from the axils of leaves of the year;
the staminate on usually elongated and panicled aments, and composed of
a campanulate 5 or 6-lobed or parted calyx, the lobes imbricated in the
bud, usually 10 or 12 stamens inserted on the slightly thickened torus,
with elongated exserted filiform filaments and oblong anthers, and a
minute hirsute rudimentary ovary; the pistillate on shorter simple or
panicled aments or scattered at the base of the staminate inflorescence,
the cymes surrounded by an involucre of imbricated scales; calyx
urn-shaped, the short limb divided into 6 obtuse lobes; abortive stamens
inserted on the limb of the calyx and opposite its lobes; ovary sessile
on the thin disk, 3-celled after fecundation, with 3 spreading styles
terminating in minute stigmas, and 2 ovules in each cell attached to its
interior angle. Fruit maturing at the end of the second or rarely of the
first season, its involucre inclosing 1—3 nuts, ovoid or globose,
sometimes more or less depressed, rarely obscurely angled, dehiscent or
indehiscent, covered by stout spines, tuberculate or marked by
interrupted vertical ridges; nut more or less angled by mutual pressure
when more than 1, often pilose, crowned with the remnants of the style,
marked at the base by a large conspicuous circular depressed scar, the
thick shell tomentose on the inner surface. Seed usually solitary by
abortion, bearing at apex the abortive ovules; cotyledons plano-convex,
fleshy, farinaceous.
Castanopsis inhabits California with two species, and southeastern Asia
where it is distributed with about twenty-five species from southern
China to the Malay Archipelago and the eastern Himalayas. Of the
California species one is usually arborescent and the other _Castanopsis
sempervirens_ Dudley is a low alpine shrub of the coast ranges and the
Sierra Nevada.
_Castanopsis_ from κὰστανα and ὄψις, in allusion to its resemblance to
the Chestnut-tree.
1. Castanopsis chrysophylla A. DC. Chinquapin. Golden-leaved Chestnut.
[Illustration: Fig. 219]
Leaves lanceolate or oblong-ovate, gradually narrowed at the ends or
sometimes abruptly contracted at apex into a short broad point, entire
with slightly thickened revolute margins, when they unfold thin, coated
below with golden yellow persistent scales and above with scattered
white scales, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous
above, 2′—6′ long, ½′ to nearly 2′ wide, with a stout midrib raised and
rounded on the upper side; turning yellow at maturity and falling
gradually at the end of their second or in their third year; petioles
¼′—⅓′ in length; stipules ovate, rounded or acute at apex, brown and
scarious, puberulous, ¼′—⅓′ long. Flowers appearing irregularly from
June until February in the axils of broadly ovate apiculate pubescent
bracts on staminate and androgynous scurfy stout-stemmed aments 2′—2½′
long and crowded at the ends of the branches; calyx of the staminate
flower coated on the outer surface with hoary tomentum, divided into
broadly ovate rounded lobes much shorter than the slender stamens; calyx
of the pistillate flower oblong-campanulate, free from the ovary,
clothed with hoary tomentum, divided at apex into short rounded lobes,
rather shorter than the minute abortive stamens; anthers red; ovary
conic, hirsute, with elongated slightly spreading thick pale stigmas.
Fruit ripening at the end of the second season, involucre globose,
dehiscent, irregularly 4-valved, often slightly shorter than the nuts,
sessile, solitary, or clustered, tomentose and covered on the outer
surface by long stout or slender rigid spines, 1′—1½′ in diameter,
containing 1 or occasionally 2 nuts; nuts broadly ovoid, acute, obtusely
3-angled, light yellow-brown and lustrous; seeds dark purple-red, sweet
and edible.
A tree, 50°—100° high, with a massive trunk 3°—6° in diameter,
frequently free of branches for 50°, stout spreading branches forming a
broad compact round-topped or conic head, and rigid branchlets coated
when they first appear with bright golden-yellow scurfy scales, dark
reddish brown and slightly scurfy during their first winter, and
gradually growing darker in their second season; often much smaller and
sometimes reduced to a shrub, 2°—12° high (var. _minor_ A. De Candolle).
Winter-buds fully grown at mid-summer, usually crowded near the end of
the branch, ovoid or subglobose, with broadly ovate apiculate thin and
papery light brown scales slightly puberulous on the back, ciliate on
the scarious often reflexed margins, the terminal about ¼′ long and
broad and rather larger than the often stipitate axillary buds. Bark
1′—2′ thick and deeply divided into rounded ridges 2′—3′ wide, broken
into thick plate-like scales, dark red-brown on the surface and bright
red internally. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown
tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 50—60 layers of
annual growth; occasionally used in the manufacture of ploughs and other
agricultural implements.
Distribution. Skamania County, Washington, valley of the lower Columbia
River, Oregon, southward along the western slopes of the Cascade
Mountains, and in California along the western slopes of the Sierra
Nevada and through the coast ranges to the elevated valleys of the San
Jacinto Mountains, sometimes ascending to altitudes of 4000° above the
sea; of its largest size in the humid coast valleys of northern
California.
Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of temperate Europe.
4. LITHOCARPUS Bl.
_Pasania_ Örst.
Trees, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled hairs, deeply
furrowed scaly bark, hard close-grained brittle wood, stout branchlets,
and winter-buds covered by few erect or spreading foliaceous scales.
Leaves convolute in the bud, petiolate, persistent, entire or dentate,
with a stout midrib, primary veins running obliquely to the points of
the teeth, or on entire leaves forked and united near the margins, and
reticulate veinlets; stipules oblong-obovate to linear-lanceolate, those
of the upper leaves persistent and surrounding the buds during the
winter. Flowers in erect unisexual and in bisexual tomentose aments from
the axils of leaves of the year, from the inner scales of the terminal
bud or from separate buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year;
staminate in 3-flowered clusters in the axils of ovate rounded bracts,
the lateral flowers subtended by similar but smaller bracts, each flower
composed of a 5-lobed tomentose calyx, with nearly triangular acute
lobes, 10 stamens, with slender elongated filaments and small oblong or
emarginate anthers, and an acute abortive hairy ovary; pistillate
scattered at the base of the upper aments below the staminate flowers,
solitary in the axils of acute bracts, furnished with minute lateral
bractlets, and composed of a 6-lobed ovoid calyx, with rounded lobes,
inclosed in the tomentose involucral scales, 6 stamens, with abortive
anthers, an ovoid-oblong 3-celled ovary, 3 elongated spreading light
green styles thickened and stigmatic at apex, and 2 anatropous ovules in
each cell. Fruit an oval or ovoid nut maturing at the end of the second
season, 1-seeded by abortion, surrounded at base by the accrescent woody
cupular involucre of the flower, marked by a large pale circular basal
scar, the thick shell tomentose on the inner surface. Seed red-brown,
filling the cavity of the nut, bearing at apex the abortive ovules;
cotyledons thick and fleshy, yellow and bitter.
Lithocarpus is intermediate between the Oaks and the Chestnuts, and,
with the exception of one California species, is confined to
southeastern Asia, where it is distributed with many species from
southern Japan and southern China through the Malay Peninsula to the
Indian Archipelago.
_Lithocarpus_ from λίθος and καρπός, in allusion to the character of the
fruit.
1. Lithocarpus densiflora Rehd. Tan Bark Oak. Chestnut Oak.
_Quercus densiflora_ Hook. & Arn.
_Pasania densiflora_ Örst.
[Illustration: Fig. 220]
Leaves oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded or acute or rarely cordate at
base, acute or occasionally rounded at apex, or rarely lanceolate and
acuminate (f. _lanceolata_ Rehdr.) repand-dentate, with acute callous
teeth, or entire with thickened revolute margins, coated when they
unfold with fulvous tomentum and glandular on the margins with dark
caducous glands, at maturity pale green, lustrous and glabrous or
covered with scattered pubescence on the upper surface, rusty-tomentose
on the lower, ultimately becoming glabrous above and glabrate and bluish
white below, 3′—5′ long, ¾′—3′ wide, with a midrib raised and rounded on
the upper side, thin or thick primary veins and fine conspicuous
reticulate veinlets; persistent until the end of their third or fourth
year; petioles stout, rigid, tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules brown
and scarious, hirsute on the outer surface. Flowers in early spring and
frequently also irregularly during the autumn; aments stout-stemmed,
3′—4′ long; staminate flowers crowded, hoary-tomentose in the bud, their
bracts tomentose. Fruit solitary or often in pairs, on a stout tomentose
peduncle ½′—1′ in length; nut full and rounded at base, gradually
narrowed and acute or rounded at apex, scurfy-pubescent when fully
grown, becoming light yellow-brown, glabrous and lustrous at maturity,
¾′—1′ long, ½′—1′ thick, its cup shallow, tomentose with lustrous
red-brown hairs on the inner surface, and covered by long linear rigid
spreading or recurved light brown scales coated with fascicled hairs,
frequently tipped, especially while young, with dark red glands and
often tomentose near the base of the cup.
A tree, usually 70°—80° but sometimes 150° high, with a trunk 1°—4° in
diameter, stout branches ascending in the forest and forming a narrow
spire-like head, or in open positions spreading horizontally and forming
a broad dense symmetrical round-topped crown, and branchlets coated at
first with a thick fulvous tomentum of fascicled hairs often persistent
until the second or third year, becoming dark reddish brown and
frequently covered with a glaucous bloom; or sometimes reduced to a
shrub, with slender stems only a few feet high (var. _montana_ Rehdr.).
Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, ¼′—⅓′ long, often surrounded by the
persistent stipules of the upper leaves, with tomentose loosely
imbricated scales, those of the outer ranks linear-lanceolate,
increasing in width toward the interior of the bud, those of the inner
ranks ovate or obovate and rounded at apex. Bark ¾′—1½′ thick, deeply
divided by narrow fissures into broad rounded ridges broken into nearly
square plates covered by closely appressed light red-brown scales. Wood
hard, strong, close-grained, brittle, reddish brown, with thick darker
brown sapwood; largely used as fuel. The bark is exceedingly rich in
tannin and is largely used for tanning leather.
Distribution. Valley of the Umpqua River, Oregon, southward through the
coast ranges to the Santa Inez Mountains, California, and along the
western slope of the Sierra Nevada up to elevations of 4000° above the
sea to Mariposa County; very abundant in the humid coast region north of
San Francisco Bay and on the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia Mountains, and
of its largest size in the Redwood forest of Napa and Mendocino
Counties; southward and on the Sierras less abundant and of smaller
size; the form _lanceolata_ in southern Oregon and in Del Norte and
Mendocino Counties, California; the var. _montana_ at high altitudes on
the Siskiyou Mountains, in the region of Mount Shasta and on the
northern Sierra Nevada.
5. QUERCUS L. Oak.
Trees or shrubs, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled
hairs, scaly or dark and furrowed bark, hard and close-grained or porous
brittle wood, slender branchlets marked by pale lenticels and more or
less prominently 5-angled. Winter-buds clustered at the ends of the
branchlets, with numerous membranaceous chestnut-brown slightly
accrescent caducous scales closely imbricated in 5 ranks, in falling
marking the base of the branchlet with ring-like scars. Leaves 5-ranked,
lobed, dentate or entire, often variable on the same branch,
membranaceous or coriaceous, the primary veins prominent and extending
to the margins or united within them and connected by more or less
reticulate veinlets, deciduous in the autumn or persistent until spring
or until their third or fourth year; petioles in falling leaving
slightly elevated semiorbicular more or less obcordate leaf-scars
broader than high, marked by the ends of numerous scattered
fibro-vascular bundles; stipules obovate to lanceolate, scarious,
caducous, or those of upper leaves occasionally persistent through the
season. Flowers vernal with or after the unfolding of the leaves;
staminate solitary in the axils of lanceolate acute caducous bracts, or
without bracts, in graceful pendulous clustered aments, from separate or
leaf-buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year, or from the axils
of the inner scales of the terminal bud or from those of the leaves of
the year; calyx campanulate, lobed or divided to the base into 4—7,
usually 6, membranaceous lobes; stamens 4—6, rarely 2, or 10—12,
inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with free filiform exserted
filaments and ovate-oblong or subglobose glabrous or rarely hairy
2-celled usually yellow anthers; pistillate solitary, subtended by a
caducous bract and 2 bractlets, in short or elongated few-flowered
spikes from the axils of leaves of the year; calyx urn-shaped, with a
short campanulate 6-lobed limb, the tube adnate to the incompletely 3 or
rarely 4 or 5-celled ovary inclosed more or less completely by an
accrescent involucre of imbricated scales, becoming the cup of the
fruit; styles as many as the cells of the ovary, short or elongated,
erect or incurved, dilated above, stigmatic on the inner face or at apex
only, generally persistent on the fruit; ovules anatropous or
semianatropous, 2 in each cell. Fruit a nut (_acorn_) maturing in one or
in two years, ovoid, subglobose, or turbinate, short-pointed at apex,
1-seeded by abortion, marked at base by a large conspicuous circular
scar, with a thick shell, glabrous or coated on the inner surface with
pale tomentum, more or less surrounded or inclosed in the accrescent
cupular involucre of the flower (_cup_), its scales thin or thickened,
loosely or closely imbricated. Seed marked at base or at apex or rarely
on the side by the abortive ovules; cotyledons thick and fleshy, usually
plano-convex and entire.
Quercus inhabits the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere and
high altitudes within the tropics, ranging in the New World southward to
the mountains of Colombia and in the Old World to the Indian
Archipelago. Two hundred and seventy-five species have been described;
of the North American species fifty-four are large or small trees. Of
exotic species, the European _Quercus Robur_ L., and _Quercus
sessiliflora_ Salisb., have been frequently cultivated as ornamental
trees in the eastern United States, where, however, they are usually
short-lived and unsatisfactory. Many of the species are important
timber-trees; their bark is often rich in tannin and is used for tanning
leather, and all produce wood valuable for fuel and in the manufacture
of charcoal.
_Quercus_ is the classical name of the Oak-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Fruit maturing at the end of the second season (except 22); shell of
the nut silky tomentose on the inner surface; leaves or their
lobes bristle-tipped. Black Oaks.
Stamens usually 4—6; styles elongated, finally recurved; abortive
ovules apical.
Leaves deciduous in their first autumn or winter.
Leaves pinnately lobed, convolute in the bud.
Leaves green on both surfaces.
Scales of the cup of the fruit closely appressed.
Leaves usually dull on the upper surface, 7—11-lobed; cup
of the fruit cup-shaped or in one variety broad and
saucer-shaped, its scales thin.
1. Q. borealis (A).
Leaves lustrous.
Leaves dimorphous, 5—7-lobed, axillary clusters of hairs
large and prominent; cup of the fruit
saucer-shaped or in one form deep cup-shaped.
2. Q. Shumardii (A, C).
Leaves similar on upper and lower branches.
Cup of the fruit turbinate or deep cup-shaped.
Leaves 5-lobed, the lobes usually entire, rarely
furnished with tufts of axillary hairs below.
3. Q. texana (C).
Leaves 5—7-lobed, the lobes dentate, furnished with
tufts of axillary hairs below.
4. Q. ellipsoidalis (A).
Cup of the fruit deep cup-shaped to turbinate; leaves
5—9-lobed, the lobes toothed.
5. Q. coccinea (A, C).
Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped.
Leaves 5—9-lobed.
6. Q. palustris (A, C).
Leaves 3—5-lobed.
7. Q. georgiana (C).
Scales of the cup of the fruit more or less loosely
imbricated, forming a free margin on its rim.
Leaves usually 7-lobed.
Winter-buds tomentose.
8. Q. velutina (A, C).
Winter-buds pubescent only at apex.
9. Q. Kelloggii (G).
Leaves usually 3—5-lobed; winter-buds rusty pubescent.
10. Q. Catesbæi (C).
Leaves whitish or grayish tomentulose below.
Leaves mostly acutely 5-lobed, pale or silvery white below.
11. Q. ilicifolia (A).
Leaves often dimorphous, 3—11-lobed, the lobes often
falcate.
12. Q. rubra (A, C).
Leaves broad-obovate, often abruptly dilated at the wide
obscurely lobed apex.
Leaves rounded or cordate at base.
Lower surface of the leaves orange color or brownish, the
upper scales of the cup forming with several rows a
thick rim on its inner surface, often reflexed.
13. Q. marilandica (A, C).
Lower surface of the leaves pale, the erect scales on the
rim of the cup in a single row.
14. Q. arkansana (C).
Leaves cuneate at base.
Leaves oblong-obovate.
15. Q. nigra (C).
Leaves rhombic.
16. Q. rhombica (C).
Leaves lanceolate-oblong or lanceolate-obovate, usually entire,
involute in the bud. Willow Oaks.
Leaves glabrous.
Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, deciduous in autumn.
17. Q. Phellos (A, C).
Leaves elliptic or rarely oblong-obovate, deciduous in the
late winter.
18. Q. laurifolia (C).
Leaves tomentose or pubescent below, oblong-lanceolate to
oblong-obovate.
Leaves pale blue-green, hoary tomentose below.
19. Q. cinerea (C).
Leaves dark green, pubescent below.
20. Q. imbricaria (A).
Leaves not deciduous in the autumn, revolute in the bud (convolute
in 23).
Leaves mostly persistent until after the appearance of those of
the following year.
Leaves lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, pale and
tomentose below.
21. Q. hypoleuca (E, H).
Leaves oval, orbicular to oblong, green and pubescent below;
fruit maturing at the end of the first season.
22. Q. agrifolia (G).
Leaves persistent until their second summer or autumn.
Leaves lanceolate to oval or oblong-lanceolate, entire or
serrate; cup of the fruit turbinate or tubular.
23. Q. Wislizenii (G).
Leaves oval to oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit saucer-shaped
or turbinate.
24. Q. myrtifolia (C).
Stamens usually 6—8; styles dilated; abortive ovules basal or
lateral; leaves persistent until their third or fourth season,
involute in the bud.
Leaves oblong, entire, dentate, or sinuate-toothed,
fulvous-tomentose and ultimately pale on the lower surface;
cup of the fruit usually thick.
25. Q. chrysolepis (G, H).
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, crenate-dentate or entire, pubescent or
tomentose below; cup of the fruit usually thin.
26. Q. tomentella (G).
Fruit maturing at the end of the first season; shell of the nut
glabrous on the inner surface (hoary-tomentose in 27); abortive
ovules basal; stamens 6—8; styles dilated; lobes of the leaves
not bristle-tipped. White Oaks.
Leaves mostly persistent until the appearance of those of the
following year, revolute in the bud (convolute in 28).
Leaves yellow-green.
Fruit sessile or short-stalked.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or repand-dentate; inner
surface of the nut hoary tomentose.
27. Q. Emoryi (F, H).
Leaves oblong or obovate, entire, sinuate-toothed or lobed.
28. Q. dumosa (G).
Fruit long-stalked; leaves oblong, elliptic or obovate, pale,
glabrous or in one form densely tomentose below.
29. Q. virginiana (C).
Leaves blue-green.
Fruit usually in many-fruited long-stalked clusters; leaves
broad-obovate, coarsely reticulate-venulose.
30. Q. reticulata (H).
Fruit solitary or in pairs.
Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong,
entire.
31. Q. Toumeyi (H).
Cup of the fruit cup-shaped or hemispherical,
oblong-lanceolate to broad-obovate, pubescent below.
32. Q. arizonica (H).
Cup of the fruit usually cup-shaped or turbinate.
Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, usually cordate at base;
fruit rather long-stalked.
33. Q. oblongifolia (E, H).
Leaves oblong to obovate, usually cuneate or rounded or
cordate at base.
34. Q. Engelmannii (G).
Leaves deciduous in their first season.
Leaves blue-green.
Arboreous; leaves oblong, lobed, spinescent-dentate or entire,
pubescent below; cup of the fruit shallow cup-shaped.
35. Q. Douglasii (G).
Arborescent or shrubby.
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, undulate-lobed; cup of the
fruit saucer-shaped to cup-shaped.
36. Q. Vaseyana (C).
Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic or lanceolate, undulate,
serrate-toothed or irregularly lobed; cup of the fruit
hemispheric to cup-shaped.
37. Q. Mohriana (C).
Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, slightly lobed or entire; cup
of the fruit cup-shaped or rarely saucer-shaped.
38. Q. Laceyi (C).
Leaves yellow-green.
Leaves entire or slightly lobed.
Leaves different on upper and lower branches, oblong to
oblong-obovate, slightly lobed or entire.
Cup of the fruit cup-shaped.
39. Q. annulata (C).
Cup of the fruit shallow saucer-shaped.
40. Q. Durandii (C).
Leaves similar on upper and lower branches, entire or slightly
sinuate-lobed toward the apex, oblong or oblong-obovate.
41. Q. Chapmanii (C).
Leaves more or less deeply sinuate-lobed.
Leaves white-tomentulose below (sometimes green and pubescent
in 43).
Leaves obovate or oblong, lyrately pinnatifid or deeply
sinuate-lobed; cup of the fruit fringed by the awned
scales.
42. Q. macrocarpa (A, C, F).
Leaves obovate-oblong, deeply 5—9-lobed or pinnatifid; nut
often inclosed in the cup.
43. Q. lyrata (A, C).
Leaves pubescent below.
Leaves usually covered above with fascicled hairs, obovate,
3—5-lobed, their lobes truncate or rounded.
44. Q. stellata (A, C).
Leaves glabrous above at maturity.
Leaves obovate to oblong; cup of the fruit shallow
cup-shaped or slightly turbinate, its scales usually
thin.
45. Q. Garryana (B, G).
Leaves oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit hemispheric, the
scales often much thickened.
46. Q. utahensis (F).
Leaves oblong-obovate, deeply lobed; nut conic, elongated,
inclosed for one-third its length in the cup-shaped
cup.
47. Q. lobata (G).
Leaves glabrate or puberulous below, oblong to oblong-obovate.
48. Q. leptophylla (F).
Leaves glabrous below.
Leaves oblong-obovate, usually 5-lobed.
49. Q. austrina (C).
Leaves oblong-obovate, obliquely pinnatifid or 3—9-lobed.
50. Q. alba (A, C).
Leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed. Chestnut Oaks.
Fruit on peduncles much longer than the petioles; leaves
obovate or oblong-obovate, generally sinuate-dentate or
lobed, pubescent, and usually hoary on the lower
surface.
51. Q. bicolor (C).
Fruit on peduncles about as long or shorter than the petioles.
Leaves obovate or oblong-obovate, cuneate or rounded at the
broad or narrow base, tomentose or pubescent and often
silvery white below.
52. Q. Prinus (A, C).
Leaves obovate or oblong to lanceolate, acuminate, with
rounded or acute teeth.
53. Q. montana (A, C).
Fruit sessile or nearly so; leaves oblong to lanceolate, acute
or acuminate or broadly obovate, puberulous and pale,
often silvery white on the lower surface.
54. Q. Muehlenbergii (A, C).
1. Quercus borealis Michx. Red Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 221]
Leaves obovate or oblong, acute or acuminate, abruptly or gradually
cuneate or rounded at the broad or narrow base, usually divided about
half way to the midrib by wide oblique sinuses rounded at the bottom
into 11 or sometimes into 7 or 9 acute oblique ovate lobes tapering from
broad bases and mostly sinuately 3-toothed at apex with elongated
bristle-pointed teeth, or sometimes oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed
and cuneate at base, and sinuately lobed with broad acute usually entire
or slightly dentate lobes, when they unfold pink, covered with soft
silky pale pubescence on the upper surface and below with thick white
tomentum, soon glabrous, at maturity thin and firm, dark green, dull and
glabrous above, pale yellow-green, glabrous or rarely puberulous and
sometimes furnished with small tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the
veins below, 5′—9′ long, 4′—6′ wide; falling early in the autumn after
turning dull or sometimes bright orange color or brown; petioles stout,
yellow or red, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate in pubescent aments
4′—5′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 narrow ovate rounded lobes shorter
than the stamens; pistillate on short glabrous peduncles, their
involucral scales broadly ovate, dark reddish brown, shorter than the
conspicuous linear acute bract of the flower and as long as the
lanceolate acute calyx-lobes; stigmas bright green. Fruit solitary or in
pairs, sessile or short-stalked, ovoid, gradually narrowed and acute at
apex or cylindric and rounded at apex, pale brown, lustrous, more or
less tomentose toward the ends, ½′—1′ long; ½′—¾′ in diameter; cup
cup-shaped, puberulous on the inner surface, covered with small closely
appressed ovate acute red-brown pubescent scales slightly thickened on
the back toward the base of the cup, with a thin dark-colored tip and
margins.
A tree usually not more than 60°—70° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in
diameter, often much smaller, stout branches forming a narrow head, and
slender lustrous branchlets light green and covered with pale scurfy
pubescence when they first appear, dark red during their first winter
and ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, gradually narrowed to the
acute apex, about ¼′ long, with thin ovate acute light chestnut-brown
scales. Bark on young stems and on the upper part of the limbs of old
trees 1′—1½′ thick, dark brown tinged with red and divided into small
thick appressed plates scaly on the surface. Wood heavy, hard, strong,
close-grained, light reddish brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood;
used in construction, for the interior finish of houses, and in
furniture.
Distribution. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, through Quebec to southern
Ontario, and southward to northern New England, western New York,
northern Pennsylvania (Presque Isle, Erie County), northern Michigan,
southeastern Wisconsin, central Minnesota, central Iowa (Winneshick
County), and on the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina at altitudes
of about 4000°. Passing with many intermediate forms differing in the
size of the nut and in the depth of the cup into
Quercus borealis var. maxima Ashe. Red Oak.
_Quercus rubra_ Du Roi, not L.
[Illustration: Fig. 222]
Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid to
slightly obovoid, gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly
narrowed at base, usually 1′—1¼′ long and ½′—⅔′ thick, occasionally not
more than ⅔′ long and thick, inclosed only at the base in a thick
saucer-shaped cup.
A tree, usually 70°—80°, or occasionally 150° high, with a trunk 3°—4°
in diameter, and stout spreading and ascending branches forming a broad
head.
Distribution. Province of Quebec in the neighborhood of Montreal, and
southern Ontario, westward through southern Michigan to southeastern
Nebraska, and southward to northern Georgia, on the southern Appalachian
Mountains up to altitudes of 3000°, southern Kentucky, eastern and
central Tennessee, northeastern (Tishomingo County), northwestern (Yazoo
County), and central and southern (Hinds and Union Counties)
Mississippi, northern and southwestern Alabama (Dekalb, Cullman,
Jefferson, and Dallas Counties), northwestern Arkansas, and eastern
Kansas and Oklahoma; one of the largest and most generally distributed
trees of the northern states; rare and local in the south; of its
largest size in the region north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers.
Often planted as a park and shade tree in the northeastern states and in
the counties of western and northern Europe; generally more successful
in Europe than other American Oaks.
× _Quercus Lowellii_ Sarg., a possible hybrid of _Quercus borealis_ and
_Q. ilicifolia_, has been found in the neighborhood of Seabury, York
County, Maine.
× _Quercus Porterii_ Trel., probably a hybrid of _Quercus borealis_ var.
_maxima_ and _Q. velutina_, has been found on Bowditch Hill, Jamaica
Plain, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on College Hill, Easton,
Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and near Columbus, Franklin County,
Ohio.
× _Quercus runcinata_ Engelm., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
borealis_ var. _maxima_ and _Q. imbricaria_ first found near St. Louis,
occurs also in the neighborhood of Independence, Jackson County, and at
Williamsville, Wayne County, Missouri, and in Richland and Wayne
Counties, Illinois.
2. Quercus Shumardii Buckl.
_Quercus texana_ Sarg. in part, not Buckl.
[Illustration: Fig. 223]
Leaves obovate, seven rarely five-lobed, the lobes two or three-lobed
and sometimes dentate at apex, on leaves of lower branches short and
broad, and separated by narrow sinuses pointed or rounded in the bottom,
on upper branches deeply divided by broad rounded sinuses into narrow
acuminate lobes, when they unfold often tinged with red and covered with
pale loose tomentum deciduous before they are half grown, at maturity
glabrous, dark green and lustrous above, paler and furnished below with
large axillary tufts of pale hairs, 6′—8′ long, 4′—5′ wide, with a thin
midrib and slender primary veins running to the points of the lobes;
petioles slender, glabrous, 2′—2½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in
slender glabrous aments 6′—7′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 rounded
slightly villose lobes shorter than the stamens; pistillate on pubescent
peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, light brown, pubescent;
stigmas red. Fruit: nut oblong-ovoid, narrowed and rounded at apex,
¾′—1¼′ long, ½′—1′ in diameter, inclosed at the base only in the thick
saucer-shaped cup with a slightly incurved rim and covered with closely
appressed ovate pale pubescent or nearly glabrous scales narrowed above
the middle, abruptly long-pointed, thin or often conspicuously
tuberculate.
A tree up to 120° high, with a tall trunk occasionally 5° in diameter,
stout wide-spreading branches forming a broad rather open head, and gray
or grayish brown glabrous branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute or
acuminate, about ¼′ long, with closely imbricated gray glabrous or
rarely pubescent scales. Bark 1′—1½′ thick, ridged, broken into small
appressed plates scaly on the surface. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained,
light reddish brown, often manufactured into lumber in the Mississippi
valley and considered more valuable than that of the northern Red Oak.
Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in moist rich soil; coast
region of Texas eastward from the Colorado River and ranging inland up
the valley of that river to Burnet County, southeastern Oklahoma,
through Arkansas, southeastern Kansas and Missouri to Fayette County,
Iowa, southern Illinois and Indiana, the neighborhood of Columbus,
Franklin County, Ohio, and southeastern Michigan (near Portage Lake,
Jackson County); through the eastern Gulf States to western and central
Florida and northward in the neighborhood of the coast to the valley of
the Neuse River, North Carolina; Chesapeake Beach, Calvert County,
Maryland (_W. W. Ashe_); ranging inland in the south Atlantic States to
Rome, Floyd County, Georgia, Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, and
Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, and Chapel Hill, Orange
County, North Carolina. Passing into
Quercus Shumardii var. Schneckii Sarg.
_Quercus texana_ Sarg. in part, not Buckl.
_Quercus Schneckii_ Britt.
[Illustration: Fig. 224]
Differing from the type in the deep cup-shaped cup of the fruit covered
with thin scales, rarely much thickened and tuberculate at base (only on
river banks near Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi), and connected
with it by forms with the cups of the fruit differing from saucer to
deep cup-shaped.
Distribution. Growing with _Quercus Shumardii_; more common in Texas and
in the Mississippi valley than the type, and ranging eastward through
Louisiana and Mississippi to central and southern Alabama, central and
southeastern Tennessee (neighborhood of Chattanooga), and central
Kentucky; apparently not reaching the Atlantic States.
3. Quercus texana Buckl.
[Illustration: Fig. 225]
Leaves widest above the middle, broad-cuneate, concave-cuneate or nearly
truncate at base, deeply or rarely only slightly divided by broad
sinuses rounded in the bottom into 5 or 7 lobes, the terminal lobe
3-lobed and acute at apex, the upper lateral lobes broad and more or
less divided at apex and much larger and more deeply lobed than those of
the lowest pair, when they unfold densely covered with fascicled hairs
and often bright red, soon glabrous, thin, dark green and lustrous
above, pale and lustrous and rarely furnished below with small
inconspicuous axillary tufts of pale hairs, 3′—3½′ long, 2½′—3′ wide,
with a thin midrib and slender primary veins running to the points of
the lobes; petioles slender, soon glabrous, ¾′—1½′ in length. Flowers:
staminate in slender villose aments 3′—4′ long; calyx thin, villose on
the outer surface, divided into 4 or 5 acute lobes shorter than the
stamens; pistillate on short hoary tomentose peduncles, their involucral
scales brown tinged with red; stigmas bright red. Fruit short-stalked,
usually solitary; nut ovoid, narrowed and rounded at apex, light
red-brown, often striate, ¼′—¾′ long and broad, sometimes acute, nearly
1′ in length and not more than ⅓′ in diameter; cup turbinate, covered
with thin ovate acuminate slightly appressed glabrous scales, in the
small fruit of trees on dry hills inclosing a third or more of the nut,
in the larger fruit of trees on better soil comparatively less deep.
A tree on dry hills rarely more than 30° tall, with a trunk 8′—10′ in
diameter, small spreading or erect branches and slender red or reddish
brown glabrous or rarely pubescent branchlets; often a shrub; on better
soil at the foot of hills occasionally 50° high with a trunk 12′—18′ in
diameter. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ⅙′—¼′ long and covered with closely
imbricated acute slightly or densely pubescent red scales. Bark light
brown tinged with red, ¾′—1′ thick, deeply ridged and broken into
plate-like scales.
Distribution. Dry limestone hills and ridges, and in the more fertile
soil at their base; central and western Texas (Dallas, Tarrant County to
Travis and Bexar Counties), and to the Edwards Plateau (San Saba, Kerr,
Brown, Coke and Uvalde Counties); westward replaced by the var.
_chesosensis_ Sarg. differing in the acuminate lobes of the leaves and
smaller cups of the fruit; known only on the dry rocky slopes of the
Chesos Mountains, Brewster County, Texas; and by the var. _stellapila_
Sarg., differing in the presence of fascicled hairs on both surfaces of
the mature leaves and on the branchlets of the year; above Fort Davis,
Jeff Davis County, Texas.
4. Quercus ellipsoidalis E. J. Hill. Black Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 226]
Leaves elliptic to obovate-orbicular, acute or acuminate, truncate or
broadly cuneate at base, deeply divided by wide sinuses rounded in the
bottom into 5—7 oblong lobes repandly dentate at apex, or often,
especially those of the upper pair, repandly lobulate, when they unfold
slightly tinged with red and hoary-tomentose, soon becoming glabrous
with the exception of small tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the
principal veins, at maturity thin and firm, bright green and lustrous
above, paler and sometimes entirely glabrous below, 3′—5′ long, 2½′—4′
wide, with a stout midrib and primary veins and prominent reticulate
veinlets; late in the autumn turning yellow or pale brown more or less
blotched with purple; petioles slender, glabrous or rarely puberulous,
1½′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate in puberulous aments 1½′—2′ long;
calyx campanulate, usually tinged with red, 2—5-lobed or parted into
oblong-ovate or rounded segments, glabrous or slightly villose, fringed
at apex with long twisted hairs, about as long as the 2—5 stamens, with
short filaments and oblong anthers; pistillate on stout tomentose
1—3-flowered peduncles, red, their involucral scales broad, oblong,
acute, hairy; calyx campanulate, 4—7-lobed, ciliate on the margins.
Fruit short-stalked or nearly sessile, solitary or in pairs; nut
ellipsoidal to subglobose, chestnut-brown, often striate and puberulous,
inclosed for one third to one half its length in a turbinate or
cup-shaped cup gradually narrowed at base, thin, light red-brown, and
covered by narrow ovate obtuse or truncate brown pubescent closely
appressed scales.
A tree, 60°—70° high, with a short trunk rarely 3° in diameter, much
forked branches ascending above and often pendulous low on the stem,
forming a narrow oblong head, and slender branchlets covered at first
with matted pale hairs, bright reddish brown during their first winter,
becoming dark gray-brown or reddish brown in their second season.
Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse or acute, sometimes slightly angled, about ⅛′
long, with ovate or oval red-brown lustrous slightly puberulous outer
scales ciliate on the margins. Bark thin, light yellow internally,
close, rather smooth, divided by shallow connected fissures into thin
plates, dark brown near the base of the tree, dull above, gray-brown and
only slightly furrowed on the large branches.
Distribution. In the neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, to southeastern
Minnesota common; often covering large areas of sandy soil with a
stunted growth and on the prairies sometimes a low shrub; eastern Iowa
(Muscatine County), and the Lower Peninsular of Michigan (Montmorency,
Arenac, and St. Clair Counties).
5. Quercus coccinea Muench. Scarlet Oak. Spanish Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 227]
Leaves oblong-obovate or elliptic, truncate or cuneate at base, deeply
divided by wide sinuses rounded in the bottom into 7 or rarely 9 lobes
repand-dentate at apex, the terminal lobe, ovate, acute, and 3-toothed,
the middle division the largest and furnished with 2 small lateral
teeth, the lateral lobes obovate, oblique or spreading, sometimes
falcate, usually broad and oblique at the coarsely toothed apex, when
they unfold bright red covered with loose pale pubescence above and
below with silvery white tomentum, green at the end of a few days, at
maturity thin and firm, bright green, glabrous and very lustrous above,
paler and less lustrous and sometimes furnished with small tufts of
rusty pubescence in the axils of the veins below, 3′—6′ long, 2½′—4′
broad, with a yellow midrib and primary veins, late in the autumn
turning brilliant scarlet; petioles slender, terete, 1½′—2½′ in length.
Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous aments 3′—4′ long; calyx
pubescent, bright red before opening, divided into 4 or 5 ovate acute
segments shorter than the stamens; pistillate on pubescent peduncles
sometimes ½′ long, bright red, their involucral scales ovate, pubescent,
shorter than the acute calyx-lobes. Fruit sessile or stalked, solitary
or in pairs; nut oval, oblong-ovate or hemispheric, truncate or rounded
at base, rounded at apex, ½′—1′ long, ⅓′—⅔′ thick, light reddish brown
and occasionally striate, inclosed for one third to one half its length
in a deep cup-shaped or turbinate thin cup light reddish brown on the
inner surface, covered by closely imbricated oblong-ovate acute thin, or
rarely much thickened (var. _tuberculata_ Sarg.) light reddish brown
slightly puberulous scales.
A tree, 70°—80° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, comparatively
small branches spreading gradually and forming a rather narrow open
head, and slender branchlets coated at first with loose scurfy
pubescence, soon pale green and lustrous, light red or orange-red in
their first winter and light or dark brown the following year; usually
much smaller. Winter-buds ellipsoidal or ovoid, gradually narrowed at
apex, ⅛′—¼′ long, dark reddish brown, and pale-pubescent above the
middle. Bark of young stems and branches smooth, light brown, becoming
on old trunks ½′—1′ thick and divided by shallow fissures into irregular
ridges covered by small light brown scales slightly tinged with red.
Wood heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, light or reddish brown, with
thicker darker colored sapwood.
Distribution. Light dry usually sandy soil; valley of the Androscoggin
River, Maine, southern New Hampshire and Vermont to southern Ontario,
southward to the District of Columbia and along the Appalachian
Mountains to eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and northern Georgia; in
central Georgia and northeastern Mississippi (near Corinth, Alcorn
County), and westward through New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
southern Wisconsin to central Missouri (Jerome, Phelps County); in
eastern Oklahoma (Arkansas River valley near Fisher, Creek County, _G.
W. Stevens_); ascending to altitudes of nearly 5000° on the southern
mountains; the prevailing Oak above 2500° to the summits of the Blue
Ridge of the Carolinas; very abundant in the coast region from
Massachusetts Bay to southern New Jersey; less common in the interior,
growing on dry gravelly uplands, and on the prairies skirting the
western margins of the eastern forest.
Occasionally planted in the northeastern states and in Europe as an
ornamental tree valued chiefly for the brilliant autumn color of the
foliage.
× _Quercus Robbinsii_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
coccinea_ and _Q. ilicifolia_, occurs at North Easton, Bristol County,
Massachusetts.
× _Quercus Benderi_ Baenitz, a supposed hybrid of _Quercus coccinea_ and
_Q. borealis_ var. _maxima_, appeared several years ago in Silesia, and
a similar tree has been found in the Blue Hills Reservation near Boston.
6. Quercus palustris Muench. Pin Oak. Swamp Spanish Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 228]
Leaves obovate, narrowed and cuneate or broad and truncate at base,
divided by wide deep sinuses rounded in the bottom into 5—7 lobes, the
terminal lobe ovate, acute, 3-toothed toward the apex, or entire, the
lateral lobes spreading or oblique, sometimes falcate, especially those
of the lowest pair, gradually tapering and acute at the dentate apex, or
obovate and broad at apex, when they unfold light bronze-green stained
with red on the margins, lustrous and puberulous above, coated below and
on the petioles with pale scurfy pubescence, at maturity thin and firm,
dark green and very lustrous above, pale below, with large tufts of pale
hairs in the axils of the conspicuous primary veins; 4′—6′ long, 2′—4′
wide, with a stout midrib; late in the autumn gradually turning deep
scarlet; petioles slender, yellow, ½′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate
in hairy aments 2′—3′ long; calyx puberulous and divided into 4 or 5
oblong rounded segments more or less laciniately cut on the margins,
shorter than the stamens; pistillate on short tomentose peduncles, their
involucral scales broadly ovate, tomentose, shorter than the acuminate
calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked,
solitary or clustered; nut nearly hemispheric, about ½′ in diameter,
light brown, often striate, inclosed only at the base in a thin
saucer-shaped cup dark red-brown and lustrous within, and covered by
closely appressed ovate light red-brown thin puberulous scales.
A tree, usually 70°—80° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, often
clothed with small tough drooping branches, or when crowded in the
forest sometimes 120° high, with a trunk 60°—70° tall and 4°—5° in
diameter, slender branches beset with short-ridged spur-like laterals a
few inches in length, forming on young trees a broad pyramidal head,
becoming on older trees open and irregular, with rigid and more
pendulous branches often furnished at first with small drooping
branchlets, and slender tough branchlets dark red and covered by short
pale silvery tomentum, soon becoming green and glabrous, lustrous dark
red-brown or orange color in their first winter, growing darker in their
second year and ultimately dark gray-brown. Winter-buds ovoid, gradually
narrowed and acute at apex, about ⅛′ long, with imbricated light
chestnut-brown scales puberulous toward the thin sometimes ciliate
margins. Bark of young trunks and branches smooth, lustrous, light brown
frequently tinged with red, becoming on older trunks ¾′—1¼′ thick, light
gray-brown, generally smooth and covered by small closely appressed
scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, light brown, with thin
rather darker colored sapwood; sometimes used in construction, and for
shingles and clapboards.
Distribution. Borders of swamps and river-bottoms in deep rich moist
soil; valley of the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts and
Connecticut; on Grand Isle in the Niagara River, New York to southern
Ontario and southwestern Michigan, and westward to eastern Iowa
(Muscatine County), and southward to southern West Virginia (Hardy and
Mercer Counties), southwestern Virginia (Wythe County), central North
Carolina (on Bowling’s Creek, near Chapel Hill, Orange County, and on
Dutchman’s Creek, Forsyth County); and to southern Kentucky, central
Tennessee, southern Arkansas (Fulton, Hempstead County), and
northeastern Oklahoma; rare and of small size in New England;
exceedingly common on the coast plain south of the Hudson River; very
abundant on the bottom-lands of the streams of the lower Ohio River.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northeastern states and
occasionally in the countries of western and central Europe.
7. Quercus georgiana M. A. Curtis.
[Illustration: Fig. 229]
Leaves convolute in the bud, elliptic or obovate, gradually narrowed and
cuneate at base, divided generally about half way to the midrib by wide
or narrow oblique sinuses rounded in the bottom into 3—7 lobes, the
terminal lobe ovate, acute, or rounded and entire or frequently
furnished with 1 or 2 small lateral teeth, the lateral lobes oblique or
spreading, mostly triangular, acute and entire, or those of the upper
and of the middle pair often broad and repand-lobulate at the oblique
ends, sometimes gradually 3-lobed at the broad apex and narrowed and
entire below, or equally 3-lobed, with broad or narrow spreading lateral
lobes, or occasionally pinnatifid, when they unfold bright green tinged
with red, ciliate on the margins and coated on the midrib, veins, and
petioles with loose pale pubescence, at maturity thin, bright green and
lustrous above, paler below, and glabrous or furnished with tufts of
hairs in the axils of the primary veins, usually about 2½′ long and 1½′
wide; turning dull orange and scarlet in the autumn; petioles slender,
½′—¾′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous or pubescent
aments 2′—3′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 broadly ovate rounded
segments rather shorter than the stamens; pistillate on short glabrous
slender peduncles; their involucral scales rather shorter than the acute
calyx-lobes, pubescent or puberulous; stigmas bright red. Fruit
short-stalked; nut ellipsoidal or subglobose, ⅓′—½′ long, light
red-brown and lustrous, inclosed for one third to nearly one half its
length in a thick cup-shaped cup light red-brown and lustrous on the
inner surface, and covered by thin ovate bright light red-brown truncate
erose scales.
Distribution. Georgia; on Stone Mountain, and Little Stone Mountain,
Dekalb County; on a few other granite hills between the Yellow and
Oconee rivers in the region south and east of Stone Mountain (Winder,
Jackson County, Rockmart, Polk County and at Warm Springs, Meriwether
County).
Occasionally cultivated, and hardy in eastern Massachusetts.
× _Quercus Smallii_ Trel., a possible hybrid of _Quercus georgiana_ and
_Q. marilandica_, occurs on the slopes and summit of Little Stone
Mountain, Dekalb County, Georgia.
8. Quercus velutina Lam. Black Oak. Yellow-bark Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 230]
Leaves ovate or oblong, rounded, cuneate or truncate at base, mostly
7-lobed and sometimes divided nearly to the middle by wide rounded
sinuses into narrow obovate more or less repand-dentate lobes, or into
elongated nearly entire mucronate lobes tapering gradually from a broad
base, the terminal lobe oblong, elongated, acute, furnished with small
lateral teeth, or broad, rounded, and coarsely repand-dentate, or
slightly divided into broad dentate lobes or sinuate-dentate, bright
crimson when they unfold, and covered above by long loose scattered
white hairs and below with thick pale or silvery white tomentum,
hoary-pubescent when half grown, and at maturity thick and firm or
subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, below yellow-green, brown
or dull copper color and more or less pubescent or glabrous with the
exception of tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the principal veins,
3′—12′ long and 2′—10′ wide, but usually 5′—6′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with
a stout midrib and primary veins; late in the autumn turning dull red,
dark orange color, or brown, and falling gradually during the winter;
petioles stout, yellow, glabrous or puberulous, 3′—6′ in length.
Flowers: staminate in tomentose or pubescent aments 4′—6′ long; calyx
coated with pale hairs, with ovate acute lobes; pistillate on short
tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, shorter than the
acute calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked,
solitary or in pairs; nut ovoid-oblong, obovoid, oval or hemispheric,
broad and rounded at base, full and rounded at apex, light red-brown,
often striate, frequently coated with soft rufous pubescence, ½′—¾′ long
and broad, or rarely 1′ long and broad, inclosed for about half its
length or rarely nearly to the apex in the thin deeply cup-shaped or
turbinate cup dark red-brown on the inner surface, covered by thin light
chestnut-brown acute hoary scales closely appressed at the base of the
cup, loosely imbricated above the middle, with free scarious tips
forming a fringe-like border to its rim.
A tree, often 70°—80° and occasionally 150° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in
diameter, slender branches spreading gradually into a narrow open head,
stout branchlets coated at first with pale or fulvous scurfy tomentum,
becoming in their first winter glabrous, dull red or reddish brown,
growing dark brown in their second year or brown slightly tinged with
red. Winter-buds ovoid, strongly angled, gradually narrowed and obtuse
at apex, hoary-tomentose, ¼′—½′ long. Bark of young stems and branches
smooth, dark brown, deep orange color internally, becoming ¾′—1½′ thick
on old trunks, and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on
the surface into thick dark brown or nearly black closely appressed
plate-like scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, bright
brown tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood; of little
value except as fuel. The bark abounds in tannic acid and is largely
used in tanning, as a yellow dye, and in medicine.
Distribution. Dry gravelly uplands and ridges; coast of southern Maine
to northern Vermont, southern and western Ontario, the southern
peninsula of Michigan, northwestern, eastern and southern Iowa, and
southeastern Nebraska, and southward to western Florida, southern
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, eastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma
and eastern Texas to the valley of the Brazos River; one of the
commonest Oaks on the gravelly drift of southern New England and the
middle states; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to
altitudes of about 4000°, and often forming a large part of the forest
growth on their foothills; abundant in all parts of the Mississippi
basin, and of its largest size in the valley of the lower Ohio River;
the common species of the Black Oak group reaching the south-Atlantic
and Gulf Coast, and here generally scattered on dry ridges through the
maritime Pine belt.
_Quercus velutina_, which is more variable in the form of its leaves
than the other North American Black Oaks, is easily recognized by the
bright yellow color of the inner bark, in early spring by the deep red
color of the unfolding leaves, becoming pale and silvery in a few days,
and by the large tomentose winter-buds. From western Missouri to
northwestern Arkansas a form occurs (var. _missouriensis_ Sarg.) with
the mature leaves covered above with fascicled hairs, and coated below
and on the petioles and summer branchlets with rusty pubescence, and
with broader more loosely imbricated hoary-tomentose cup-scales.
9. Quercus Kelloggii Newb. Black Oak.
_Quercus californica_ Coop.
[Illustration: Fig. 231]
Leaves oblong or obovate, truncate, cuneate or rounded at the narrow
base, 7 or rarely 5-lobed by wide and deep or shallow and oblique
sinuses rounded in the bottom, the terminal lobe ovate, 3-toothed at the
acute apex, the lateral lobes tapering gradually from the base or broad
and obovate, coarsely repand-dentate with acute pointed teeth, or rarely
entire, when they unfold dark red or purple and pilose above and coated
below and on the petioles with thick silvery white tomentum, at maturity
thick and firm, lustrous, dark yellow-green and glabrous or rarely
pubescent above, light yellow-green or brownish and glabrous or
pubescent, or occasionally hoary-tomentose below, 3′—6′ long, 2′—4′
wide; turning yellow or brown in the autumn before falling; petioles
slender, yellow, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate in hairy aments
4′—5′ long; calyx pubescent, divided into 4 or 5 ovate acute segments
shorter than the stamens; anthers bright red; pistillate on short
tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, coated like the
acute calyx-lobes with pale tomentum; stigmas dark red. Fruit
short-stalked, solitary or clustered; nut oblong, ellipsoidal or
obovoid, broad and rounded at base, full and rounded or gradually
narrowed and acute at the puberulous apex, 1′—1½′ long, about ¾′ broad,
light chestnut-brown, often striate, inclosed for one fourth to two
thirds of its length in the deep cup-shaped cup light brown on the inner
surface, and covered by thin ovate-lanceolate lustrous light chestnut
brown scales, sometimes rounded and thickened on the back toward the
base of the cup, their tips elongated, thin and erose on the margins,
often forming a narrow fringe-like border to the rim of the cup.
A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, stout
spreading branches forming an open round-topped head, and branchlets
coated at first with thick hoary caducous tomentum, bright red or brown
tinged with red, and usually glabrous or pubescent or puberulous during
their first winter, becoming dark red-brown in their second year;
frequently much smaller and at high elevations a small shrub (f.
_cibata_ Jeps.). Winter-buds ovoid, gradually narrowed and acute at
apex, about ¼′ long, with closely imbricated pale chestnut-brown scales
ciliate on the thin scarious margins and pubescent toward the point of
the bud. Bark of young stems and branches smooth, light brown, becoming
on old trunks 1′—1½′ thick, dark brown slightly tinged with red or
nearly black, divided into broad ridges at the base of old trees and
broken above into thick irregular oblong plates covered by minute
closely appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, very brittle, bright
red, with thin lighter colored sapwood; occasionally used as fuel.
Distribution. Valleys and mountain slopes; basin of the Mackenzie River
in western Oregon, southward over the California coast ranges, and along
the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada up to altitudes of 6500° to the
Cuyamaca Mountains near the southern boundary of California; extending
across the Sierra Nevada to the foothills of Owens valley (_Jepson_) in
eastern California; rare in the immediate neighborhood of the coast; the
largest and most abundant Oak-tree of the valleys of southwestern Oregon
and of the Sierra Nevada, sometimes forming groves of considerable
extent in coniferous forests; of its largest size at altitudes of about
6000° above the sea.
10. Quercus Catesbæi Michx. Turkey Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 232]
Leaves oblong or obovate or nearly triangular, gradually narrowed and
cuneate at base, deeply divided by wide rounded sinuses into 3 or 5 or
rarely 7 lobes, the terminal lobe ovate, elongated, acute and entire or
repand-dentate, or obovate and coarsely equally or irregularly 3-toothed
at apex, the lateral lobes spreading, usually falcate, entire and acute,
tapering from the broad base, and broad, oblique, and repand-lobulate at
apex, or 3-toothed at the broad apex and gradually narrowed to the base,
coated when they unfold with rufous fascicled hairs, and when fully
grown thick and rigid, bright yellow-green and lustrous above, paler,
lustrous, and glabrous below, with large tufts of rusty hairs in the
axils of the veins, 3′—12′ long, 1′—10′ wide, but usually about 5′ long
and wide, with a broad yellow or red-brown midrib; turning bright
scarlet before falling in the late autumn or early winter; petioles
stout, grooved, ¼′—¾′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender hairy
red-stemmed aments 4′—5′ long; calyx puberulous and divided into 4 or 5
ovate acute lobes; pistillate on short stout tomentose peduncles, their
involucral scales bright red, pubescent, hairy at the margins; stigmas
dark red. Fruit short-stalked, usually solitary; nut oval, full and
rounded at the ends, about 1′ long and ¾′ broad, dull light brown,
covered at the apex by a thin coat of snow-white tomentum, inclosed for
about one third its length in a thin turbinate cup often gradually
narrowed into a stout stalk-like base, light red-brown and lustrous on
the inner surface, covered by ovate-oblong rounded scales extending
above the rim of the cup and down over the upper third of the inner
surface, and hoary-pubescent except their thin bright red margins.
A tree, usually 20°—30°, or occasionally 50°—60° high, with a trunk
rarely exceeding 2° in diameter, stout spreading more or less contorted
branches forming a broad or narrow open irregular generally round-topped
head, and stout branchlets coated at first with fascicled hairs, nearly
glabrous and deep red when the leaves are half grown, dark red in their
first winter, gradually growing dark brown; generally much smaller and
sometimes shrubby. Winter-buds elongated, acute, ½′ long, with light
chestnut-brown scales erose on the thin margins, and coated, especially
toward the point of the bud, with rusty pubescence. Bark ½′—1′ thick,
red internally, dark gray tinged with red on the surface, and at the
base of old trunks becoming nearly black, deeply and irregularly
furrowed and broken into small appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard,
strong, rather close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick
lighter colored sapwood; largely used for fuel.
Distribution. Dry barren sandy ridges and sandy bluffs and hummocks in
the neighborhood of the coast; southeastern Virginia (near Zuni, Isle of
Wight County) to the shores of Indian River and Peace Creek, Florida,
and westward to eastern Louisiana; comparatively rare toward the western
limits of its range, and most abundant and of its largest size on the
high bluff-like shores of bays and estuaries in South Carolina and
Georgia; the prevailing tree with _Quercus cinerea_ in the flat woods of
the interior of the Florida peninsula as far south as the sandy ridges
in the neighborhood of Lake Istokpoga, De Soto County.
× _Quercus Mellichampii_ Trel. believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
Catesbæi_ and _Q. laurifolia_ occurs at Bluffton on the coast of South
Carolina, in the neighborhood of Orlando, Orange County and near San
Mateo, Putnam County, Florida.
× _Quercus Ashei_ Trel. believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus Catesbæi_
with _Q. cinerea_ occurs at Folkston and near Trader’s Hill, Charlton
County and St. Mary’s, Camden County, Georgia.
× _Quercus blufftonensis_ Trel., a probable hybrid of _Quercus Catesbæi_
and _Q. rubra_ L., has been found at Bluffton, South Carolina.
× _Quercus Walteriana_ Ashe, believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
Catesbæi_ and _Q. nigra_, is not rare in the immediate neighborhood of
the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, and occurs on sand hills in
Sampson County, North Carolina, near Jacksonville, Duval County,
Florida, at Mount Vernon, Mobile County and in the neighborhood of
Selma, Dallas County, Alabama.
11. Quercus ilicifolia Wang. Bear Oak. Scrub Oak.
_Quercus nana_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 233]
Leaves obovate or rarely oblong, gradually or abruptly cuneate at base,
divided by wide shallow sinuses into 3—7, usually 5, acute lobes, the
terminal lobe ovate, elongated, rounded and 3-toothed or acute and
dentate or entire at apex, the lateral lobes spreading, mostly
triangular and acute, or those of the upper pair broad, oblique and
repand-lobulate or broad at apex, slightly 3-lobed and entire below, or
deeply 3-lobed above and sinuate below, or occasionally oblong to
oblong-obovate and entire, with undulate margins, when they unfold dull
red and puberulous or pubescent on the upper surface and coated on the
lower and on the petioles with thick pale tomentum, with conspicuous
tufts of silvery white hairs in the axils of the veins, at maturity
thick and firm, dark green and lustrous above, covered below with pale
or silvery white pubescence, 2′—5′ long, 1½′—3′ wide, with a stout
yellow midrib and slender primary veins; turning dull scarlet or yellow
in the autumn; petioles slender, glabrous, or pubescent, 1′—1½′ in
length. Flowers: staminate in hairy aments 4′—5′ long, and often
persistent until midsummer; calyx red or green tinged with red and
irregularly divided into 3—5 ovate rounded lobes shorter than the
stamens; anthers bright red ultimately yellow; pistillate on stout
tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, about as long as the
acute calyx-lobes, red and tomentose; stigmas dark red. Fruit produced
in great profusion, sessile or stalked, in pairs or rarely solitary; nut
ovoid, broad, flat or rounded at base, gradually narrowed and acute or
rounded at apex, about ½′ long and broad, light brown, lustrous, usually
faintly striate, inclosed for about one half its length in the
cup-shaped or saucer-shaped cup often abruptly enlarged above the
stalk-like base, thick, light reddish brown within, and covered by thin
ovate closely imbricated red-brown puberulous scales acute or truncate
at apex, the minute free tips of the upper scales forming a fringe-like
border to the cup.
A tree, occasionally 18°—20° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, with
slender spreading branches usually forming a round-topped head, and
slender branchlets dark green more or less tinged with red and
hoary-pubescent at first, during their first winter red-brown or ashy
gray and pubescent or puberulous, becoming glabrous and darker in their
second year and ultimately dark brown or nearly black; more frequently
an intricately branched shrub, with numerous contorted stems 3°—10°
tall. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, about ⅛′ long, with dark chestnut-brown
rather loosely imbricated glabrous or pilose scales. Bark thin, smooth,
dark brown, covered by small closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Dry sandy barrens and rocky hillsides; coast of eastern
Maine southward through eastern and southern New England to southern and
southwestern Pennsylvania and along the Appalachian Mountains,
principally on their eastern slopes, to southern Virginia; on Crowder
and King Mountains, Gaston County, North Carolina; and westward to the
shores of Lake George and the valley of the Hudson River; common in
eastern and southern New England, in the Pine barrens of New Jersey, and
in eastern Pennsylvania.
× _Quercus Brittonii_ Davis, believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
ilicifolia_ and _Q. marilandica_, has been found on Staten Island, New
York, and at Ocean Grove, Monmouth County, New Jersey.
× _Quercus Giffordii_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
ilicifolia_ and _Q. Phellos_, has been found at May’s Landing, Atlantic
County, New Jersey.
× _Quercus Rehderi_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
ilicifolia_ and _Q. velutina_, is not rare in eastern Massachusetts and
occurs on Martha’s Vineyard (Chilmark).
12. Quercus rubra L. Red Oak. Spanish Oak.
_Quercus digitata_ Sudw.
[Illustration: Fig. 234]
Leaves ovate to obovate, narrowed and rounded or cuneate at base, the
terminal lobe long-acuminate, entire or slightly lobed, often falcate,
usually longer than the 2 or 4 acuminate entire lateral lobes narrowed
from a broad base and often falcate, or oblong-obovate and divided at
the broad apex by wide or narrow sinuses broad and rounded in the bottom
into 3 rounded or acute entire or dentate lobes, and entire and
gradually narrowed below into an acute or rounded base (var. _triloba_
Ashe), the two forms usually occurring on different but sometimes on the
same tree, at maturity thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above,
coated below with soft close pale or rusty pubescence, 6′—7′ long and
4′—5′ wide, obscurely reticulate-venulose, with a stout tomentose midrib
and primary veins; turning brown or dull orange color in the autumn;
petioles slender, flattened, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate in
tomentose aments, 3′—5′ long; calyx thin and scarious, pubescent on the
outer surface, divided into 4 or 5 ovate rounded segments; pistillate on
stout tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales coated with rusty
tomentum, as long or rather shorter than the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas
dark red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked; nut subglobose to ellipsoidal,
full and rounded at apex, truncate and rounded at base, about ½′ long,
bright orange-brown, inclosed only at base or sometimes for one third
its length in a thin saucer-shaped cup flat on the bottom or gradually
narrowed from a stalk-like base, or deep and turbinate, bright red-brown
on the inner surface, covered by thin ovate-oblong reddish scales acute
or rounded at apex and pale-pubescent except on the margins.
A tree, usually 70°—80° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, large
spreading branches forming a broad round-topped open head, and stout
branchlets coated at first, like the young leaves, with thick rusty or
orange-colored clammy tomentum, dark red or reddish brown and pubescent
or rarely glabrous during their first winter, becoming in their second
year dark red-brown or ashy gray. The var. _triloba_ usually 20°—30°
rarely 40°—50° high. Winter-buds ovoid or oval, acute, ⅛′—¼′ long, with
bright chestnut-brown puberulous or pilose scales ciliate with short
pale hairs. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, dark brown or pale, and divided by shallow
fissures into broad ridges covered by thin closely appressed scales.
Wood hard, strong, not durable, coarse-grained, light red, with thick
lighter colored sapwood; sometimes used in construction, and largely as
fuel. The bark is rich in tannin, and is used in tanning leather and
occasionally in medicine.
Distribution. Southeastern and southern Pennsylvania and southern New
Jersey southward to central Florida, through the Gulf states to the
valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and through eastern Oklahoma and
southwestern Missouri to central Tennessee and Kentucky, southern
Indiana and Illinois, southern Ohio (Black Fork Creek, Lawrence County),
and Kanawha County, West Virginia; in the north Atlantic states only in
the neighborhood of the coast and comparatively rare; very common in the
south Atlantic and Gulf states on dry hills between the coast plain and
the Appalachian Mountains; less abundant in the southern maritime Pine
belt. The var. _triloba_: rare and local. Pleasant Grove, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania and Jefferson County, Indiana, southward to central
and western Florida, southern Alabama and Mississippi, western Arkansas
and eastern Texas; on dry uplands near Milledgeville, Baldwin County,
Georgia, the prevailing form.
Quercus rubra var. pagodæfolia Ashe. Swamp Spanish Oak. Red Oak.
_Quercus pagoda_ Rafn.
_Quercus pagodæfolia_ Ashe.
[Illustration: Fig. 235]
Leaves elliptic to oblong, acuminate, gradually narrowed and cuneate or
full and rounded or rarely truncate at base, deeply divided by wide
sinuses rounded in the bottom into 5—11 acuminate usually entire
repand-dentate lobes often falcate and spreading at right angles to the
midrib or pointed toward the apex of the leaf, when they unfold coated
with pale tomentum, thickest on the lower surface, and dark red on the
upper surface, at maturity dark green and very lustrous above, pale and
tomentose below, 6′—8′ long and 5′—6′ wide, with a stout midrib usually
puberulous on the upper side, slender primary veins arched to the points
of the lobes, and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning bright clear
yellow before falling; petioles stout, pubescent or tomentose, 1½′—2′ in
length. Flowers and Fruit as in the species.
A tree, sometimes 120° high, with a trunk 4°—5° in diameter, heavy
branches forming in the forest a short narrow crown, or in more open
situations wide-spreading or ascending and forming a great open head,
and slender branchlets hoary tomentose at first, tomentose or pubescent
during their first winter, and dark reddish brown and puberulous during
their second year. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, often prominently 4-angled,
about ¼′ long, with light red-brown puberulous scales sometimes ciliate
at the apex. Bark about 1′ thick and roughened by small rather closely
appressed plate-like light gray, gray-brown or dark brown scales. Wood
light reddish brown, with thin nearly white sapwood; largely
manufactured into lumber in the Mississippi valley, and valued almost as
highly as white oak.
Distribution. Rich bottom-lands and the alluvial banks of streams;
Maryland (Queen Anne County) and coast of Virginia to northern Florida,
and through the Gulf states and Arkansas to southern Missouri, western
Tennessee and Kentucky, and southern Illinois and Indiana; most abundant
and one of the largest and most valuable timber-trees in the river
swamps of the Yazoo basin, Mississippi, and of eastern Arkansas.
Differing chiefly from the type in the more numerous and more acuminate
lobes of the usually more elongated leaves usually paler on the lower
surface, and in the generally paler bark of the trunk; passing into
_Quercus rubra_ var. _leucophylla_ Ashe with leaves on upper branches
nearly as broad as long thickly covered below with brownish pubescence
and deeply divided into 5—7 lobes, and on lower branches slightly
obovate, less deeply divided, thin, dark green, sometimes pubescent
becoming glabrous above and often covered below with pale or brown
pubescence.
A tree sometimes 120° high; in low rich soil; coast region of
southeastern Virginia, southward to western Florida and through the Gulf
states to the valley of the Neches River, Texas, and northward to
northern Arkansas; in southern Illinois (near Mt. Carmel, Wabash County)
and southwestern Indiana (near Hovey Lake, Posey County); abundant in
low woods about River Junction, Gadsden County, Florida, and in central
Mississippi.
× _Quercus Willdenoviana_ Zabel is believed in Europe to be a hybrid of
_Quercus rubra_ and _Quercus velutina_.
13. Quercus marilandica Muench. Black Jack. Jack Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 236]
Leaves broadly obovate, rounded or cordate at the narrow base, usually 3
or rarely 5-lobed at the broad and often abruptly dilated apex, with
short or long, broad or narrow, rounded or acute, entire or dentate
lobes, or entire or dentate at apex, sometimes oblong-obovate,
undulate-lobed at the broad apex and entire below, or equally 3-lobed
with elongated spreading lateral lobes broad and lobulate at apex, when
they unfold coated with a clammy tomentum of fascicled hairs and bright
pink on the upper surface, at maturity thick and firm or subcoriaceous,
dark yellow-green and very lustrous above, yellow, orange color, or
brown and scurfy-pubescent below, usually 6′—7′ long and broad, with a
thick broad orange-colored midrib; turning brown or yellow in the
autumn; petioles stout, yellow, glabrous or pubescent, ½′—¾′ in length.
Flowers: staminate in hoary aments 2′—4′ long; calyx thin and scarious,
tinged with red above the middle, pale-pubescent on the outer surface,
divided into 4 or 5 broad ovate rounded lobes; anthers apiculate, dark
red; pistillate on short rusty-tomentose peduncles coated like their
involucral scales with thick rusty tomentum; stigmas dark red. Fruit,
solitary or in pairs, usually pedunculate; nut oblong, full and rounded
at the ends, rather broader below than above the middle, about ¾′ long,
light yellow-brown and often striate, the shell lined with dense fulvous
tomentum, inclosed for one third to nearly two thirds of its length in a
thick turbinate light brown cup puberulous on the inner surface, and
covered by large reddish brown loosely imbricated scales often ciliate
and coated with loose pale or rusty tomentum, the upper scales smaller,
erect, inserted on the top of the cup in several rows, and forming a
thick rim round its inner surface, or occasionally reflexed and covering
the upper half of the inner surface of the cup.
A tree, 20°—30°, or occasionally 40°—50° high, with a trunk rarely more
than 1′ in diameter, short stout spreading often contorted branches
forming a narrow compact round-topped or sometimes an open irregular
head, and stout branchlets coated at first with thick pale tomentum,
light brown and scurfy-pubescent during their first summer, becoming
reddish brown and glabrous or puberulous in the winter, and ultimately
brown or ashy gray. Winter-buds ovoid or oval, prominently angled, light
red-brown, coated with rusty brown hairs, about ¼′ long. Bark 1′—1½′
thick, and deeply divided into nearly square plates 1′—3′ long and
covered by small closely appressed dark brown or nearly black scales.
Wood heavy, hard, strong, dark rich brown, with thick lighter colored
sapwood; largely used as fuel and in the manufacture of charcoal.
Distribution. Dry sandy or clay barrens; Long Island and Staten Island,
New York, eastern and southern Pennsylvania, and southern New Jersey to
the shores of Matanzas Inlet and Tampa Bay, Florida, and westward
through the Gulf states to western Texas (Callahan County) and to
western Oklahoma (Dewey and Kiowa Counties), Arkansas, eastern Kansas,
southeastern Nebraska and through Missouri to northeastern Illinois,
southwestern and southern Indiana, and northeastern Kentucky (South
Portsmouth, Greenup County, _R. E. Horsey_); rare in the north, very
abundant southward; west of the Mississippi River often forming on
sterile soils a great part of the forest growth; of its largest size in
southern Arkansas and eastern Texas.
× _Quercus Rudkinii_ Britt., with characters intermediate between those
of _Quercus marilandica_ and _Q. Phellos_, and probably a hybrid of
these species, has been found near Tottenville, Staten Island, New York,
at Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey, and at the Falls of the Yadkin
River, Stanley County, North Carolina.
× _Quercus sterilis_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
marilandica_ and _Q. nigra_ has been found in Bladen County, North
Carolina.
× _Quercus Hastingsii_ Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
marilandica_ and _Q. texana_, occurs near Boerne, Kendall County, and at
Brownwood, Brown County, Texas.
× _Quercus Bushii_ Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
marilandica_ and _Q. velutina_, although not common, occurs in eastern
Oklahoma (Sapulpa, Creek County), Mississippi (Oxford, Lafayette
County), Alabama (Dothan, Houston County, near Berlin, Dallas County,
and Daphne, Baldwin County), Florida (Sumner, Levey County), and in
Georgia (Climax, Decatur County).
14. Quercus arkansana Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 237]
Leaves broadly obovate, slightly 3-lobed or dentate at the wide apex,
cuneate at base, on sterile branches often oblong-ovate, acute or
rounded at apex, rounded at base, the lobes ending in long slender
mucros, when they unfold tinged with red, thickly covered with pale
fascicled hairs persistent until summer, the midrib and veins more
thickly clothed with long straight hairs, and at maturity glabrous, with
the exception of small axillary tufts of pubescence on the lower
surface, light yellow-green above, paler below, 2′—2¾′ long and broad,
with a slender light yellow midrib, thin primary veins and prominent
veinlets; on sterile branches often 4½′—5½′ long and 2½′—2¾′ wide;
petioles slender, coated at first with clusters of pale hairs, becoming
glabrous or puberulous, ⅗′—⅘′ in length. Flowers: staminate in aments
covered with clusters of long pale hairs, 2′—2½′ long; calyx usually 4
rarely 3-lobed, thinly covered with long white hairs; stamens usually 4;
anthers ovoid-oblong, apiculate, dark red; pistillate on stout
peduncles, hoary-tomentose like the scales of the involucre; stigmas
dark red. Fruit solitary or in pairs, on short glabrous peduncles; nut
broad-ovoid, rounded at apex, sparingly pubescent especially below the
middle with fascicled hairs, light brown, obscurely striate, ¼′—⅓′ long,
½′—⅝′ thick, inclosed only at base in the flat saucer-shaped cup,
pubescent on the inner surface, covered with closely appressed scales
obtuse at their narrow apex, red on the margins, pale pubescent, those
of the upper rank smaller, erect, inserted on the top of the cup and
forming a thin rim round its inner surface.
A tree when crowded in the forest often 60°—70° high, with a tall trunk,
stout ascending branches forming a long narrow head, and slender
branchlets thickly coated early in the season with pale fascicled hairs,
pubescent or nearly glabrous in their first autumn and darker and
glabrous in their second year, when not crowded by other trees rarely
40° high with a short trunk occasionally 1° in diameter. Winter-buds
ovoid, acute, with thin light chestnut-brown slightly pubescent or
nearly glabrous scales. Bark thick, nearly black, divided by deep
fissures into long narrow ridges covered with thick closely appressed
scales.
Distribution. Low woods and on rolling sand hills four miles north of
Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas; rare and local.
15. Quercus nigra L. Water Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 238]
Leaves oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base and
enlarged often abruptly at the broad rounded entire or occasionally
3-lobed apex, on vigorous young branchlets sometimes pinnatifid with
acute, acuminate or rounded lobes or broadly oblong-obovate and rounded
at apex with entire or undulate margins, on upper branches occasionally
linear-lanceolate, on occasional trees narrowed below to an elongated
cuneate base and gradually widened above into a more or less deeply
3-lobed apex, the lobes rounded or acute (var. _tridentifera_ Sarg.), or
often acute at the ends, and on upper branchlets sometimes
linear-lanceolate to linear-obovate, acute or rounded at apex, divided
above the middle by deep wide rounded sinuses into elongated lanceolate
acute entire lobes, or pinnatifid above the middle, when they unfold
thin, light green more or less tinged with red and covered by fine
caducous pubescence, with conspicuous tufts of pale hairs in the axils
of the veins below, at maturity thin, dull bluish green, paler below
than above, glabrous or with axillary tufts of rusty hairs, usually
about 2½′ long and 1½′ wide, or on fertile branches sometimes 6′ long
and 2½′ wide; turning yellow and falling gradually during the winter;
petioles stout, flattened, ⅛′—½′ in length; leaves of seedling plants
linear-lanceolate with entire or undulate margins, or occasionally lobed
with 1 or 2 pointed lobes, often deeply 3-lobed at a wide apex, and
occasionally furnished below the middle with a single acuminate lobe,
all the forms often occurring on a plant less than three feet high.
Flowers: staminate in red hairy-stemmed aments 2′—3′ long; calyx thin
and scarious, covered on the outer surface with short hairs, divided
into 4 or 5 ovate rounded segments; pistillate on short tomentose
peduncles, their involucral scales a little shorter than the acute
calyx-lobes and coated with rusty hairs; stigmas deep red. Fruit usually
solitary, sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid, broad and flat at base,
full and rounded at the pubescent apex, light yellow-brown, often
striate, ⅓′—⅔′ long and nearly as thick, usually inclosed only at the
base in a thin saucer-shaped cup, or occasionally for one third its
length in a cup-shaped cup, coated on the inner surface with pale silky
tomentum and covered by ovate acute closely appressed light red-brown
scales clothed with pale pubescence except on their darker colored
margins.
A tree, occasionally 80° high, with a trunk 2°—3½° in diameter, numerous
slender branches spreading gradually from the stem and forming a
symmetrical round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets light or
dull red during their first winter, becoming grayish brown in their
second season. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, strongly angled, covered by
loosely imbricated dark red-brown puberulous scales slightly ciliate on
the thin margins. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, with a smooth light brown surface
slightly tinged with red and covered by smooth closely appressed scales.
Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light brown, with thick lighter
colored sapwood; little valued except as fuel.
Distribution. High sandy borders of swamps and streams and the rich
bottom-lands of rivers, or northward sometimes in dry woods; southern
Delaware, southward to the shores of the Indian River and Tampa Bay,
Florida, ranging inland in the south Atlantic states through the
Piedmont region, and westward through the Gulf states to the valley of
the Colorado River, Texas, and through eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas to
southeastern Missouri and to central Tennessee and Kentucky. The var.
_tridentifera_ Sarg. rare and local; southwest Virginia to Alabama (near
Selma, Dallas County), central and western Mississippi, eastern
Louisiana; valley of Navidad River, Lavaca County, Texas. A form (f.
_microcarya_ Sarg.—_Quercus microcarya_ Small) occurs in the dry soil on
slopes of Little Stone Mountain, Dekalb County, Georgia.
The Water Oak is commonly planted as a shade-tree in the streets and
squares of the cities and towns of the southern states.
16. Quercus rhombica Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 239]
Leaves rhombic, rarely oblong-obovate to lanceolate, acute or rounded
and apiculate at apex, cuneate at base, the margins entire or slightly
undulate, those on vigorous shoots occasionally furnished on each side
near the middle with a short lobe, when they unfold deeply tinged with
red, covered with short pale caducous pubescence and furnished below
with usually persistent tufts of axillary hairs, at maturity thin, dark
green and lustrous above, pale below, 3½′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a
stout conspicuous yellow midrib and slender forked primary veins;
turning yellow and falling gradually in early winter, rarely at the ends
of branches, obovate and rounded, slightly 3-lobed or undulate at the
broad apex (var. _obovatifolia_ Sarg.); petioles yellow, ⅕′—½′ in
length. Flowers not seen. Fruit sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid,
rounded at apex, thickly covered with pale pubescence, ⅖′—½′ long, ⅗′
thick; inclosed only at the base in a saucer-shaped cup, rounded on the
bottom, silky pubescent on the inner surface, and covered with slightly
pubescent reddish brown loosely appressed scales rounded at apex, with
free tips, those of the upper rank thin and ciliate on the margins.
A tree often 120°—150° high, with a tall trunk 3°—4½° in diameter,
stout, wide-spreading smooth branches forming a broad open head, and
slender glabrous branchlets red-brown during their first season and dark
gray the following year. Bark pale gray, slightly furrowed and covered
with closely appressed scales, ½′—¾′ thick.
Distribution. Borders of swamps and low wet woods of the coast region;
southeastern Virginia (Dismal Swamp) to northern Florida, and through
the Gulf states to the valley of the Neches River (Beaumont, Jefferson
County), eastern Texas; in Louisiana northward to the valley of the Red
River; most abundant in south central Alabama and in Louisiana.
× _Quercus beaumontiana_ Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
rhombica_ and _Q. rubra_ has been found growing by a street in Beaumont,
Jefferson County, Texas.
× _Quercus Cocksii_ Sarg., probably a hybrid of _Quercus rhombica_ and
_Q. velutina_, has been found at Pineville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
17. Quercus Phellos L. Willow Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 240]
Leaves ovate-lanceolate or rarely obovate-lanceolate, often somewhat
falcate, gradually narrowed and acute at the ends, and entire with
slightly undulate margins, when they fold light yellow-green and
lustrous on the upper surface, coated on the lower with pale caducous
pubescence, at maturity glabrous, light green and rather lustrous above,
dull and paler or rarely hoary-pubescent below, conspicuously
reticulate-venulose, 2½′—5′ long, ¼′—1′ wide, with a slender yellow
midrib and obscure primary veins forked and united about halfway between
the midrib and margins; turning pale yellow in the autumn; petioles
stout, about ⅛′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender-stemmed aments
2′—3′ long; calyx yellow, hirsute, with 4 or 5 acute segments;
pistillate on slender glabrous peduncles, their involucral scales brown
covered by pale hairs, about as long as the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas
bright red. Fruit short-stalked or nearly sessile, solitary or in pairs;
nut hemispheric, light, yellow-brown, coated with pale pubescence,
inclosed only at the very base in the thin pale reddish brown
saucer-shaped cup silky-pubescent on the inner surface, and covered by
thin ovate hoary-pubescent closely appressed scales rounded at apex.
A tree, often 70°—90° high, with a trunk 2° or rarely 4° in diameter,
small branches spreading into a comparatively narrow open or conical
round-topped head, and slender glabrous reddish brown branchlets
roughened by dark lenticels, becoming in their second year dark brown
tinged with red or grayish brown; usually much smaller. Winter-buds
ovoid, acute, about ⅛′ long, with dark chestnut-brown scales pale and
scarious on the margins. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, light red-brown slightly
tinged with red, generally smooth but on old trees broken by shallow
narrow fissures into irregular plates covered by small closely appressed
scales. Wood heavy, strong, not hard, rather coarse-grained, light brown
tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood; occasionally used in
construction, for clapboards and the fellies of wheels.
Distribution. Low wet borders of swamps and streams and rich sandy
uplands; Staten Island, New York, southern New Jersey and southeastern
Pennsylvania and southward to northeastern Florida, through the Gulf
states to the valley of the Navasota River, Brazos County, Texas, and
through Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and southeastern Missouri to central
Tennessee and northwestern Kentucky (Ballard County), and in
southwestern Illinois (Massac and Pope Counties); in the Atlantic states
usually confined to the maritime plain; less common in the middle
districts, rarely extending to the Appalachian foothills.
Occasionally planted as a shade-tree in the streets of southern towns,
and rarely in western Europe; hardy in eastern Massachusetts.
Quercus heterophylla Michx. f.
[Illustration: Fig. 241]
This has usually been considered a hybrid between _Quercus Phellos_ and
_Quercus velutina_ or _Quercus borealis_ var. _maxima_; first known in
the eighteenth century from an individual growing in a field belonging
to John Bartram on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia. What appears to
be the same form has since been discovered in a number of stations from
New Jersey to Texas, and it is possible that _Quercus heterophylla_ may,
as many botanists have believed, best be considered a species.
× _Quercus subfalcata_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
Phellos_ and _Q. rubra_ has been found at Wickliffe, Ballard County,
Illinois, at Campbell, Lawrence County, Mississippi, Fulton, Hempstead
County, Arkansas, and Houston, Harris County, Texas; its var.
_microcarpa_ Sarg., probably of the same parentage, originated in a
Dutch nursery.
× _Quercus ludoviciana_ Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
Phellos_ and _Q. rubra_ var. _pagodæfolia_ grows in low wet woods ten
miles west of Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.
18. Quercus laurifolia Michx. Laurel Oak. Water Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 242]
Leaves elliptic or rarely slightly broadest above the middle, acuminate
at the ends, apiculate at apex, occasionally lanceolate or
oblong-obovate and rounded at apex (var. _hybrida_ Michx.) sometimes
3-lobed at apex, the terminal lobe acuminate, much larger than the
others (var. _tridentata_ Sarg.), frequently unequally lobed on vigorous
branches of young trees, with small nearly triangular lobes, when they
unfold in spring yellow-green, or later in the season often pink or
bright red, and slightly puberulous, at maturity thin, green, and very
lustrous above, light green and less lustrous below, usually 3′—4′ long
and ¾′ wide, with a conspicuous yellow midrib; falling abruptly in early
spring leaving the branches bare during only a few weeks; petioles
stout, yellow, rarely more than ¼′ in length. Flowers: staminate in
red-stemmed hairy aments 2′—3′ long; calyx pubescent on the outer
surface, divided into 4 ovate rounded lobes; pistillate on stout
glabrous peduncles, their involucral scales brown and hairy, about as
long as the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas dark red. Fruit sessile or
subsessile, generally solitary; nut ovoid to hemispheric, broad and
slightly rounded at base, full and rounded at the puberulous apex, dark
brown, about ½′ long, inclosed for about one fourth its length in a thin
saucer-shaped cup red-brown and silky-pubescent on the inner surface,
and covered by thin ovate light red-brown scales rounded at apex and
pale-pubescent except on their darker colored margins.
A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall trunk 3°—4° in diameter, and
comparatively slender branches spreading gradually into a broad dense
round-topped shapely head, and slender glabrous branchlets dark red when
they first appear, dark red-brown during their first winter, becoming
reddish brown or dark gray in their second season. Winter-buds broadly
ovoid or oval, abruptly narrowed and acute at apex, 1/16′—⅛′ long with
numerous thin closely imbricated bright red-brown scales ciliate on the
margins. Bark of young trees ½′—1′ thick, dark brown more or less tinged
with red, roughened by small closely appressed scales, becoming at the
base of old trees 1′—2′ thick, nearly black, and divided by deep
fissures into broad flat ridges. Wood heavy, very strong and hard,
coarse-grained, liable to check badly in drying, dark brown tinged with
red, with thick lighter colored sapwood; probably used only as fuel.
Distribution. Sandy banks of streams and swamps and rich hummocks in the
neighborhood of the coast; North Carolina (near Newbern) southward to
the shores of Bay Biscayne and the valley of the Caloosahatchie River,
Florida, and in the interior of the peninsula to the neighborhood of
Lake Istokpaga, De Soto County, and westward to eastern Louisiana,
ranging inland to Darlington, Darlington County, South Carolina, to the
neighborhood of Augusta, Richmond County, Mayfield, Hancock County,
Albany, Dougherty County, Cuthbert, Randolph County, and Bainbridge,
Decatur County, Georgia, Georgiana, Butler County, and Berlin, Dallas
County, Alabama, Rockport, Copiah County, Mississippi, and to the
neighborhood of Bogalusa, Washington Parish, Louisiana (_R. S. Cocks_);
nowhere abundant, but most common and of its largest size in eastern
Florida.
19. Quercus cinerea Michx. Blue Jack. Upland Willow Oak.
_Quercus brevifolia_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 243]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate to oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and
cuneate or sometimes rounded at base, acute or rounded and apiculate at
apex, entire with slightly thickened undulate margins, or at the ends of
vigorous sterile branches occasionally 3-lobed at the apex and variously
lobed on the margins (β _dentato-lobata_ A. De Candolle), when they
unfold bright pink and pubescent on the upper surface, coated on the
lower with thick silvery white tomentum, at maturity firm in texture,
blue-green, lustrous, conspicuously reticulate venulose above,
pale-tomentose below, 2′—5′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, with a stout yellow
midrib and remote obscure primary veins forked and united within the
margins; turning red and falling gradually late in the autumn or in
early winter; petioles stout, ¼′—½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in
hoary-tomentose aments 2′—3′ long; calyx pubescent, bright red and
furnished at apex with a thick tuft of silvery white hairs before
opening, divided into 4 or 5 ovate acute lobes, becoming yellow as it
opens; stamens 4 or 5; anthers apiculate, dark red in the bud, becoming
yellow; pistillate on short stout tomentose peduncles, their involucral
scales about as long as the acute calyx-lobes and coated with pale
tomentum; stigmas dark red. Fruit produced in great profusion, sessile
or raised on a short stalk rarely ¼′ long; nut ovoid, full and rounded
at the ends or subglobose, about ½′ long, often striate, hoary-pubescent
at apex, inclosed only at the base or for one half its length in a thin
saucer-shaped or cup-shaped cup bright red-brown and coated with
lustrous pale pubescence on the inner surface, and covered by thin
closely imbricated ovate-oblong scales hoary-tomentose except on the
dark red-brown margins.
A tree on dry hills, usually 15°—20° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in
diameter, stout branches forming a narrow irregular-head, and thick
rigid branchlets coated at first with a dense fulvous or hoary tomentum
of fascicled hairs, soon becoming glabrous or puberulous, dark brown
sometimes tinged with red during their first winter and darker in their
second year; or in low moist soil often 60°—75° high, with a trunk
18′—20′ in diameter, and a broad round-topped shapely head of drooping
branches. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, with numerous rather loosely
imbricated bright chestnut-brown scales ciliate on the margins, often ¼′
long on vigorous branches, frequently obtuse and occasionally much
smaller. Bark ¾′—1½′ thick, and divided into thick nearly square plates
1′—2′ long, and covered by small dark brown or nearly black scales
slightly tinged with red. Wood hard, strong, close-grained, light brown
tinged with red, with thick darker colored sapwood; probably only used
as fuel.
Distribution. Sandy barrens and dry upland ridges, and in the rich moist
soil of the pine-covered flats of the Florida peninsula; North Carolina
southward to the shores of the Indian River and Peace Creek, Florida,
and along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas; in
the Atlantic and middle Gulf states mostly confined to a maritime belt
40°—60° wide, extending across the Florida peninsula as far south as the
sand hills in the neighborhood of Lake Istokpoga, De Soto County, and
west of the Mississippi River, ranging inland to the neighborhood of
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas and to southeastern Oklahoma (near Antlers,
Pushmataha County).
× _Quercus dubia_ Ashe, believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus cinerea_ and
_Q. laurifolia_ occurs at Abbottsburg, Bladen County, North Carolina, on
the coast of South Carolina, in southern Georgia and northern and
central Florida, and at Mississippi City, Lincoln County, Mississippi.
× _Quercus subintegra_ Trel., a supposed hybrid of _Quercus cinerea_ and
_Q. rubra_ occurs at Lumber City, Telfair County, Georgia, Lake City,
Columbia County, Florida, and at Berlin, Dallas County, Alabama.
× _Quercus sublaurifolia_ Trel., a supposed hybrid of _Quercus cinerea_
and _Q. laurifolia_ occurs at Folkston, Charlton County, Georgia, and at
Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi.
× _Quercus carolinensis_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
cinerea_ and _Q. marilandica_ occurs at Newbern, Craven County, North
Carolina, Lumber City, Telfair County and Climax, Decatur County,
Georgia, and near Fletcher, Hardin County, Texas.
× _Quercus caduca_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus cinerea_
and _Q. nigra_, occurs at Folkston, Charlton County and Lumber City,
Telfair County, Georgia, Jacksonville, Duval County, and Gainsville,
Alachua County, Florida, Mississippi City, Harrison County, Mississippi,
and at Milano, Milano County and Bryan, Brazos County, Texas.
× _Quercus oviedoensis_ Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
cinerea_ and _Q. myrtifolia_, has been found near Oviedo, Orange County,
Florida.
20. Quercus imbricaria Michx. Shingle Oak. Laurel Oak.
[Illustration: Fig. 244]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate to oblong-obovate, apiculate and acute or
rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base,
entire with slightly thickened, revolute often undulate margins, or
sometimes more or less 3-lobed, or on sterile branches occasionally
repand-lobulate, when they unfold bright red, soon becoming
yellow-green, covered with scurfy rusty pubescence on the upper surface
and hoary-tomentose on the lower, at maturity thin, glabrous, dark
green, and very lustrous above, pale green or light brown and pubescent
below, 4′—6′ long, ¾′—2′ wide, with a stout yellow midrib, numerous
slender yellow veins arcuate and united at some distance from the
margins, and reticulate veinlets; late in the autumn turning dark red on
the upper surface; petioles stout, pubescent, rarely more than ½′ in
length. Flowers: staminate in hoary-tomentose aments, 2′—3′ long; calyx
light yellow, pubescent, and divided into 4 acute segments; pistillate
on slender tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales covered with
pale pubescence and about as long as the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas
greenish yellow. Fruit solitary or in pairs, on stout peduncles often
nearly ½′ in length; nut nearly as broad as long, full and rounded at
the ends, dark chestnut-brown, often obscurely striate, ½′—⅔′ long,
inclosed for one third to one half its length in a thin cup-shaped or
turbinate cup bright red-brown and lustrous on the inner surface, and
covered by thin ovate light red-brown scales rounded or acute at the
apex and pubescent except on their darker colored margins.
A tree, usually 50°—60° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 3° in
diameter, or rarely 100° high, with a long naked stem 3°—4° in diameter,
slender tough horizontal or somewhat pendulous branches forming a narrow
round-topped picturesque head, and slender branchlets dark green,
lustrous, and often suffused with red when they first appear, soon
glabrous, light reddish brown or light brown during their first winter
and dark brown in their second year. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ⅛′
long, obscurely angled, and covered by closely imbricated light
chestnut-brown lustrous scales erose and often ciliate on the margins.
Bark on young stems and branches thin, light brown, smooth, and
lustrous, becoming on old trunks ¾′—1½′ thick, and slightly divided by
irregular shallow fissures into broad ridges covered by close slightly
appressed light brown scales somewhat tinged with red. Wood heavy, hard,
rather coarse-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin lighter
colored sapwood; occasionally used in construction, and for clapboards
and shingles.
Distribution. Rich hillsides and the fertile bottom-lands of streams;
Lehigh County (Allentown to Dorney’s Park), Bedford, Huntington,
Franklin and Union Counties, Pennsylvania, westward through Ohio to
southern Michigan, southern Wisconsin and southeastern and southern Iowa
(Muscatine to Taylor County), and southward to the District of Columbia,
along the Appalachian Mountains and their foothills, up to altitudes of
2200°, to the valley of the Little Tennessee River, North Carolina, and
to northern Georgia (Wilkes County), and middle Tennessee; through
Missouri to northeastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska, and in
northern and southern Arkansas (Fulton, Hempstead County); comparatively
rare in the east; one of the most abundant Oaks of the lower Ohio basin;
probably growing to its largest size in southern Indiana and Illinois.
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and
hardy as far north as Massachusetts.
× _Quercus Leana_ Nutt., scattered usually in solitary individuals from
the District of Columbia and western North Carolina to southern
Michigan, central and northern Illinois and southeastern Missouri, is
believed to be a hybrid between this species and _Quercus velutina_.
× _Quercus tridentata_ Engelm., described as a hybrid of _Quercus
imbricaria_ and _Q. marilandica_ first found at Allenton, Saint Louis
County, Missouri, occurs also near Olney, Richland County, Illinois.
× _Quercus exacta_ Trel., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus
imbricaria_ and _Q. palustris_, occurs near Olney, Richland County,
Illinois, and at Crown Point, Lake County, Indiana.
21. Quercus hypoleuca Engelm.
[Illustration: Fig. 245]