RED OAK
Quercus rubra
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The specific name, rubra, was given to it on account of the rich, red midrib and veins of the leaves.
It is the oak which is found farthest north, and it grows in all kinds of soil from Nova Scotia southward to Northern Georgia. The red oak was one of the earliest American trees introduced into Europe.
Scarlet Oak Quercus coccinea
A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high. The bark is grayish and not deeply furrowed. Slender twigs, with small, alternate leaf-scars. Small buds, the tips being half as hairy as those of the black oak, while the bases are smooth. The acorn is one-half or more enclosed in a coarsely scaled cup. Its kernel is bitter.
The scarlet oak is the most brilliant member of the oak family. In summer its leaves are a shining green, in autumn they turn more glowingly red than those of any other oak, and in winter its buds and stems are smooth, and show more color than those of the other members of the genus. Its outline is less spreading in shape than those of oaks generally, and the bark of the trunk is not so coarsely furrowed as the black oak’s, nor so smooth as that of the red oak.
The wood is heavy and hard, and is used for the same purposes as red oak.
The specific name, coccinea (of a scarlet color), refers to the hue of the foliage in the autumn.