Chestnut Oak


=Habitat and Range.=--Dry hillsides, limestone ridges, rich bottoms.



Ontario.



Vermont,--Gardner's island, Lake Champlain; Ferrisburg (Pringle);

Connecticut,--frequent (J. N. Bishop, 1895); on the limestone formation

in the neighborhood of Kent (Litchfield county, C. K. Averill); often

confounded by collectors with Q. Prinus; probably there are other

stations. Not authoritatively reporte
from the other New England

states.



South to Delaware and District of Columbia, along the mountains to

northern Alabama; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian

territory, and Texas.



=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 30-40 feet high, with a trunk diameter of

1-2 feet, attaining much greater dimensions in the basins of the Ohio,

Mississippi, and their tributaries; trunk in old trees enlarged at the

base, erect, branches rather short for the genus, forming a narrow

oblong or roundish head.



=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and large branches grayish or pale ash-colored,

comparatively thin, flaky; branchlets grayish-brown; season's shoots in

early summer purplish-green with pale dots.



=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate, acute to obtuse, brownish. Leaves

simple, alternate; in the typical form as recognized by Muhlenburg, 3-6

inches long, 1-1/2-2 inches wide, glossy dark green above, pale and

minutely downy beneath; outline lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, with

rather equal, coarse, sharp, and often inflexed teeth; apex acuminate;

base wedge-shaped or acute; stipules soon falling. There is also a form

of the species in which the leaves are much larger, 5-7 inches in length

and 3-5 inches in width, broadly ovate or obovate, with rounded teeth;

distinguishable from Q. Prinus only by the bark and fruit.



=Inflorescence.=--May. Appearing with the leaves; sterile catkins 2-4

inches long; calyx yellow, hairy, segments 5-8, ciliate; stamens 5-8,

anthers yellow: pistillate flowers sessile or on short spikes; stigma

red.



=Fruit.=--Maturing the first season, sessile or short-peduncled: cup

covering about half the nut, thin, shallow, with small, rarely much

thickened scales: acorn ovoid or globose, about 3/4 inch long.



=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows in all good dry or

moist soils, in open or partly shaded situations; maintains a nearly

uniform rate of growth till maturity, and is not seriously affected by

insects. It forms a fine individual tree and is useful in forest

plantations. Propagated from seed.






1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower.

4. Fertile flowers.

5. Fruiting branch.





=Quercus prinoides, Willd.=



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