NORTHERN RED OAK
Quercus rubra L.
Other Name: Red Oak.
Growth Form: Medium to tall tree to 80 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown broadly rounded, with large spreading branches; trunk straight, columnar, often buttressed at the base.
Bark: Grayish-brown, reddish-brown, blackish, or gray, with dark stripes.
Twigs: Slender, smooth, reddish-brown; 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: Pointed, smooth, reddish-brown, shiny, up to ¼ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades rather shallowly 7- to 11-lobed, the lobes bristle-tipped, dark green and smooth or somewhat hairy on the upper surface, paler and smooth or often with hairs along the veins on the lower surface, up to 10 inches long, up to 6 inches broad; leafstalks up to 2 inches long, stout, usually smooth.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing as the leaves begin to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate in slender, drooping catkins, the pistillate in groups of 1-3.
Fruit: Acorns solitary or 2 together, with or without stalks, the nut ovoid, up to 1½ inches long, pale brown, covered less than ¼ by the cup, the cup reddish-brown, with tight scales.