WHITE OAK
Quercus alba, L.
Form.—Height 75-100 feet, diameter 3-6 feet; trunk long and free from limbs and with slight taper; crown broad and open with wide-spreading and often twisted branches.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 5-8 inches long, obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex and with usually 7 rounded lobes with entire edges, bright green above, glaucous beneath.
Flowers.—May, when leaves are one-third grown; monoecious; the staminate in long pendulous catkins; the pistillate borne above on short stalks in the leaf axils.
Fruit.—Acorns maturing in autumn after flowering; cup with small brown tomentose scales, enclosing about ¼ of the nut; nut ovoid, rounded at apex, light brown, shining; kernel bitter-sweet.
Bark.—On old trunks rough with deep fissures, and ridges which are often broken into short flat light gray scales.
Wood.—Strong, heavy, close-grained, durable, light reddish brown with thin sapwood.
Range.—Maine and Minnesota to Florida and Texas.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Found in every county and in almost every locality except at high elevations.