Distribution.—Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south to Georgia and west to Texas and Wyoming. Found in all parts of Indiana, although we have no reports from the knob area where no doubt it is only local. It is a tree of wet woods, low borders of streams, etc., except among the hills of southern Indiana, it is an occasional tree of the slopes. In favorable habitats it was a frequent to a common tree. Its most constant associates are white elm, swamp white and red oak, linn, green and black ash, shellbark hickory, etc. It is sometimes called mossy-cup oak.
Remarks.—Wood and uses similar to that of white oak. In point of number, size and value it ranks as one of the most valuable trees of the State. Michaux[39] says: "A tree three miles from Troy, Ohio, was measured that was fourteen feet and nine inches in diameter six feet above the ground. The trunk rises about fifty feet without limbs, and with scarcely a perceptible diminution in size."
7a. Quercus macrocarpa var. olivæfórmis (Michaux filius) Gray. This variety is distinguished from the typical form by its shallow cup, and the long oval nut which is often 3 cm. long. The cup is semi-hemispheric, and encloses the nut for about one-half its length.
Authentic specimens are at hand from Wells County, and it has been reported from Gibson and Hamilton Counties. No doubt this form has a wider range.
8. Quercus lyràta Walter. Overcup Oak. [Plate 47.] Medium sized trees; bark generally intermediate between that of the swamp white and bur oak; leaves on petioles 5-30 mm. long which are generally somewhat reddish toward the base, 10-20 cm. long, obovate or oblong-obovate, margins very irregularly divided into 5-9 short or long lobes, ascending and generally acute, ordinarily the three terminal lobes are the largest, base of leaves wedge-shape, or narrowly rounded, upper surface at maturity dark green and smooth, the under surface densely covered with a thick tomentum to which is added more or less long and single or fascicled straight hairs; when the leaves are as described on the under surface they are gray beneath; however, a form occurs which is yellow green beneath and has little or no tomentum, but is thickly covered with long single or fascicled straight hairs; acorn single or in pairs, on stalks generally about 1 cm. long, sometimes the stalks are 3 cm. long, the stalk lies in a plane at a right angle to the base of the acorn which is a characteristic of this species; nut depressed-globose, about 1.5 cm. long, generally almost completely enclosed in the cup, or sometimes enclosed only for about 2/3 its length; cup generally very thick at the base, gradually becoming thinner at the top, and often it splits open; scales tomentose on the back, those near the base, thick and tuberculate on the back and blunt, but those near the top of the cup are acute or long attenuate; kernel sweet.
Distribution.—Maryland to Missouri,[40] and south to Florida and west to Texas. In Indiana it is found only about river sloughs or deep swamps in the southwestern counties. At present it is known only from Knox, Gibson, Posey and Spencer Counties. It was reported by Nieuwland[41] for Marshall County on the authority of Clark. This specimen was taken during a survey of Lake Maxinkuckee, and is deposited in the National Museum. I have had the specimen examined by an authority, who reports that it is some other species. Its habitat is that of areas that are inundated much of the winter season. It is so rare that its associates could not be learned. In one place it grew in a depression lower than a nearby pin oak, and in another place it grew in a depression in a very low woods, surrounded by sweet gum, big shell bark hickory, and pin oak. It is generally found singly in depressions, but it is a common tree on the low border of the west side of Burnett's pond in Gibson County.
Remarks.—Wood and uses similar to that of white oak. In our area it is usually known as bur oak.