Growth Form: Large tree up to 100 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 4 feet; crown oblong or rounded, with many branches; trunk straight, columnar, buttressed at the base.
Bark: Pale gray, with scaly ridges.
Twigs: Slender, yellow-brown or reddish-brown; pith star-shaped in cross-section; leaf scars alternate but clustered near the tip, half-round, with several bundle traces; pith star-shaped in cross-section.
Buds: Pointed, smooth, chestnut-brown, up to ¼ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades narrowly to broadly lanceolate, pointed at the tip, narrowed or rounded at the base, coarsely toothed along the edges, smooth and yellow-green on the upper surface, paler and usually finely hairy on the lower surface, up to 8 inches long and 5 inches broad; leafstalk up to 1½ inches long, slender, usually smooth.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, minute, without petals, the staminate crowded into long, slender catkins, the pistillate few in a group, with red stigmas.
Fruit: Acorns borne in groups of 1 or 2, usually on a short stalk, the nut ovoid, chestnut-colored, up to ¾ inch long, the cup covering about ½ the nut, the scales of the cup hairy and usually with a short fringe.
Wood: Heavy, strong, durable, close-grained.
Uses: Fence posts, fuel, railroad ties.
Habitat: Low rich slopes; wooded hillsides; dry cliffs.