Habitat.—Prefers dry gravelly hillsides and ridges.
Notes.—The Chestnut Oak is one of our common trees in the hilly sections and can easily be distinguished by its thick, dark-colored bark, crenate-margined leaves and large, deep-cupped acorns. Many of the best stands have been cut for tan bark. Rock Oak is a common name in some localities.
RED OAK
Quercus rubra, L.
Form.—Height 60-100 feet, diameter 2-5 feet; trunk long and free from limbs when standing in close growth, with a narrow or rounded open crown.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 5-9 inches long, with 5-7 toothed, bristle-tipped lobes, becoming narrower outward from rounded sinuses, thin and firm, smooth, lusterless dark green above, paler beneath.
Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; the staminate flowers in long hairy catkins, the pistillate on short smooth stalks.
Fruit.—Acorns maturing the second autumn after the flowers; cup shallow, saucer-shaped, enclosing only the base of the nut; scales closely-appressed and somewhat glossy; nut oblong-ovoid, 1 inch long; kernel white, bitter.