SWAMP WHITE OAK
Quercus bicolor, Willd.
Form.—Height 50-75 feet, diameter 2-3 feet; trunk, in the open, usually short, supporting a broad round-topped crown; in close stands the trunk is longer and well-formed; lower branches usually drooping.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 5-7 inches long, 3-5 inches broad, obovate, coarsely sinuate or shallow-lobed, margins thick and firm, smooth and shining above, paler and tomentose beneath.
Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; the staminate on long drooping catkins; the pistillate few-flowered, borne above on relatively long peduncles.
Fruit.—Matures in autumn after the flowers; acorns on pubescent stems 1-4 inches long; cup deeply saucer-shaped, enclosing about one-third of the nut, which is ¾ to 1¼ inches long, chestnut brown, usually hairy at apex.
Bark.—Rough on trunks with deep furrows and flat-topped and scaly ridges; on branches soon becoming rough, with scales which often curl back at the edges.
Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, tough, light brown, with thin and hardly distinguishable sapwood.