Water Oak/Quercus nigra
White Oak
Quercus alba L.
Bark light gray, separated by shallow furrows into flat ridges with loose appressed scales. Branches stout, drooping, spreading to ascending. Twigs 2 to 3 mm in diameter, reddish. Buds globose to ovoid, angulate, apex acute to obtuse, 3 to 5 mm. Leaves alternate, deciduous, simple, oblong to obovate, 7 to 20 cm long, 4 to 10 cm wide, with 7 to 11 uneven, rounded lobes and deep sinuses. Flowers unisexual, in catkins, preceding leaf expansion. Fruit an acorn, 15 to 35 mm long, 20 to 25 mm in diameter, cup 1.5 to 3 cm wide, usually cup-shaped, conspicuous with thickened scales, enclosing one-fourth to one-third of the nut.
White Oak/Quercus alba
Post Oak
Quercus stellata Wangenh.
Bark medium to dark gray, with deep furrows, scaly ridges. Branches stout, irregular, drooping to horizontal and ascending. Twigs 3 to 5 mm in diameter, gray to brownish. Buds broadly ovate, blunt to acute, 5 mm long, clustered at apex of twig. Leaves alternate, deciduous, simple; obovate, to 18 cm long, 5 to 10 cm wide; divided into 5 to 7 sinuate rounded lobes, the two lower lobes smaller than the upper pair, upper lobes and the terminal lobe resembling a cross, dark, shiny green above, grayish to brownish below, leathery. Flowers unisexual; staminate in catkins appearing with the unfolding leaves; pistillate on last year’s wood. Fruit an acorn, 13 to 25 mm long, 6 to 20 mm in diameter; cup hemispherical, enclosing about one-half of the nut, cup scales rusty-pubescent; nut ovate to ovate-oblong, about 15 mm long.
