Black Jack
Quercus marilandica Muench.
HABIT.—A small, shrubby tree 20-30 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 6-14 inches; spreading, often contorted branches form a rounded or obovoid crown.
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 5-7 inches long and broad; broad-obovate; more or less 3-lobed at the apex, the lobes entire or toothed, bristle-tipped, very variable in size and shape; thick and leathery; very lustrous and dark green above, yellowish and scurfy-pubescent beneath; petioles short, stout.
FLOWERS.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; the staminate in slender, hoary catkins 2-4 inches long; the pistillate rusty-tomentose, on short, rusty-tomentose peduncles; calyx 4-5-lobed, thin, scarious, tinged with red, pale-pubescent; corolla 0; stamens 4, with apiculate, red anthers; stigmas recurved, dark red.
FRUIT.—Autumn of second season; short-stalked acorns; cup turbinate, with large, red-brown, rusty-tomentose scales, inclosing about one-half of the nut; nut subglobose, about 3/4 inch long, yellow-brown, puberulous; kernel yellowish.
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud 1/4 inch long, ovoid, acute, prominently angled; scales light red-brown, rusty-hairy.
BARK.—Twigs at first light red and scurfy, later glabrous, red-brown, and finally brown or ashy gray; thick and almost black on the trunk, divided into nearly square plates.
WOOD.—Heavy, hard, strong, dark brown, with thick, lighter colored sapwood.
DISTRIBUTION.—Southern Michigan (Ann Arbor and Lansing).