Growth Form: Medium to large tree up to 80 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown rounded to oblong, with several branches, the lowermost often drooping; trunk straight, columnar.
Bark: Gray or grayish-brown, divided into flat, sometimes squarish, plates.
Twigs: Slender, smooth, buff-colored; pith star-shaped in cross-section; leaf scars alternate, but clustered near the tip of the twig, half-round, slightly elevated, with several bundle traces.
Buds: Nearly round, smooth, pale brown, up to ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades divided into 5-7 rounded lobes, the sinuses shallow to deep, up to 10 inches long, up to 4½ inches broad, dark green and smooth on the upper surface, pale and softly hairy to nearly smooth on the lower surface; leafstalk up to 1 inch long, smooth or hairy.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same plant, appearing when the leaves begin to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate in slender, yellow, drooping catkins, the pistillate few in a group.
Fruit: Acorns solitary or 2 together, with or without a stalk, the nut nearly spherical, up to 1 inch in diameter, pale brown, often nearly entirely enclosed by the cup, the cup finely hairy, with some of the scales forming a ragged rim near the base.
Wood: Hard, heavy, strong, dark brown.
Uses: Interior finishing, cabinets, fuel, fence posts.
Habitat: Bottomland woods; swamps.