Description Quercus imbricaria

quercus imbricaria @ bayard cutting arboretum, long island, n.y.

a tree 50-60 feet (15-18 meters) high, maximum height 1 hundred, broad pyramidal head when young, becoming in old age broad-topped , open. rare in east, abundant in lower ohio valley , middle mississippi valley. reaches largest size in southern illinois , indiana, although national champion 104 68 in cincinnati, oh.

bark: light brown, scaly; on young stems light brown, smooth. branchlets slender, dark green , shining @ first, later become light brown, dark brown.
wood: pale reddish brown, sapwood lighter; heavy, hard coarse-grained, checks badly in drying; used shingles , in construction. sp. gr., 0.7529; weight of cu. ft., 46.92 lbs.
winter buds: light brown, ovate, acute, one-eight inch long.
leaves: alternate, oblong or obovate, 4 6 inches long, 1 2 inches wide, wedge-shaped or rounded @ base, acute or rounded @ apex, entire or undulated margins, more or less three-lobed. come out of bud involute, bright red, covered rusty down above , white tomentum below. when full grown dark green, smooth , shining above, pale green or pale brown, downy below; midribs stout yellow, grooved above, primary veins slender. in autumn become dark red above, pale beneath, midribs darken, leaf. petioles stout, hairy, flattened, grooved. stipules one-half inch long, caducous.
flowers: may, when leaves half grown. staminate flowers borne on tomentose aments 2 3 inches long. bracts linear-lanceoate. calyx pale yellow, downy, four-lobed; stamens 4 five; anthers yellow. pistillate flowers borne on slender tomentose peduncles. involucres scales downy, long calyx lobes; stigmas short, reflexed, greenish-yellow.
acorns: ripen in autumn of second year; stalked, solitary or in pairs; nut spherical, one-half two-thirds inch long; cup embraces one-half two-thirds nut, cup-shaped covered light red brown, downy scales, rounded or acute @ apex. kernel bitter.




^ cite error: named reference y invoked never defined (see page).
^ keeler, harriet l. (1900). our native trees , how identify them. new york: charles scriber s sons. pp. 372–374.