Range: Quebec across Michigan to Iowa, south to eastern Texas, east to Florida.
Distinguishing Features: The Wafer Ash is distinguished by its 3-parted alternate leaves and its flat, spherical, winged seeds.
WHITE OAK
Quercus alba L.
Growth Form: Large tree up to 100 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown very broad, with stiff, horizontal branches; trunk relatively short and rather thick.
Bark: Gray or whitish with gray patches, shallowly furrowed.
Twigs: Slender, smooth, somewhat shiny, gray, whitish, or even purplish; pith star-shaped in cross-section; leaf scars alternate but crowded near the tip of the twig, half-round, slightly elevated, with several bundle traces.
Buds: Nearly round, reddish-brown or gray, up to ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades usually with 7 or 9 lobes, the lobes rounded and not bristle-tipped, the sinuses varying from shallow to deep, the upper surface green and smooth, the lower surface paler and smooth, up to 10 inches long, up to half as wide, turning red in the autumn; leafstalks up to 1 inch long, rather stout, smooth. Leaves on the same tree may vary considerably.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing when the leaves begin to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate many in drooping, yellow catkins, the pistillate few in a group, red.