Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northeastern states and occasionally in the countries of western and central Europe.
7. [Quercus georgiana] M. A. Curtis.
Leaves convolute in the bud, elliptic or obovate, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, divided generally about half way to the midrib by wide or narrow oblique sinuses rounded in the bottom into 3—7 lobes, the terminal lobe ovate, acute, or rounded and entire or frequently furnished with 1 or 2 small lateral teeth, the lateral lobes oblique or spreading, mostly triangular, acute and entire, or those of the upper and of the middle pair often broad and repand-lobulate at the oblique ends, sometimes gradually 3-lobed at the broad apex and narrowed and entire below, or equally 3-lobed, with broad or narrow spreading lateral lobes, or occasionally pinnatifid, when they unfold bright green tinged with red, ciliate on the margins and coated on the midrib, veins, and petioles with loose pale pubescence, at maturity thin, bright green and lustrous above, paler below, and glabrous or furnished with tufts of hairs in the axils of the primary veins, usually about 2½′ long and 1½′ wide; turning dull orange and scarlet in the autumn; petioles slender, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous or pubescent aments 2′—3′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 broadly ovate rounded segments rather shorter than the stamens; pistillate on short glabrous slender peduncles; their involucral scales rather shorter than the acute calyx-lobes, pubescent or puberulous; stigmas bright red. Fruit short-stalked; nut ellipsoidal or subglobose, ⅓′—½′ long, light red-brown and lustrous, inclosed for one third to nearly one half its length in a thick cup-shaped cup light red-brown and lustrous on the inner surface, and covered by thin ovate bright light red-brown truncate erose scales.
Distribution. Georgia; on Stone Mountain, and Little Stone Mountain, Dekalb County; on a few other granite hills between the Yellow and Oconee rivers in the region south and east of Stone Mountain (Winder, Jackson County, Rockmart, Polk County and at Warm Springs, Meriwether County).
Occasionally cultivated, and hardy in eastern Massachusetts.
× Quercus Smallii Trel., a possible hybrid of Quercus georgiana and Q. marilandica, occurs on the slopes and summit of Little Stone Mountain, Dekalb County, Georgia.
8. [Quercus velutina] Lam. Black Oak. Yellow-bark Oak.
Leaves ovate or oblong, rounded, cuneate or truncate at base, mostly 7-lobed and sometimes divided nearly to the middle by wide rounded sinuses into narrow obovate more or less repand-dentate lobes, or into elongated nearly entire mucronate lobes tapering gradually from a broad base, the terminal lobe oblong, elongated, acute, furnished with small lateral teeth, or broad, rounded, and coarsely repand-dentate, or slightly divided into broad dentate lobes or sinuate-dentate, bright crimson when they unfold, and covered above by long loose scattered white hairs and below with thick pale or silvery white tomentum, hoary-pubescent when half grown, and at maturity thick and firm or subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, below yellow-green, brown or dull copper color and more or less pubescent or glabrous with the exception of tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the principal veins, 3′—12′ long and 2′—10′ wide, but usually 5′—6′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with a stout midrib and primary veins; late in the autumn turning dull red, dark orange color, or brown, and falling gradually during the winter; petioles stout, yellow, glabrous or puberulous, 3′—6′ in length. Flowers: staminate in tomentose or pubescent aments 4′—6′ long; calyx coated with pale hairs, with ovate acute lobes; pistillate on short tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, shorter than the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked, solitary or in pairs; nut ovoid-oblong, obovoid, oval or hemispheric, broad and rounded at base, full and rounded at apex, light red-brown, often striate, frequently coated with soft rufous pubescence, ½′—¾′ long and broad, or rarely 1′ long and broad, inclosed for about half its length or rarely nearly to the apex in the thin deeply cup-shaped or turbinate cup dark red-brown on the inner surface, covered by thin light chestnut-brown acute hoary scales closely appressed at the base of the cup, loosely imbricated above the middle, with free scarious tips forming a fringe-like border to its rim.