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.=