Buds: Pointed, angular, gray or reddish-brown, hairy, up to ½ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades deeply to shallowly 7- to 9-lobed, the lobes bristle-tipped, dark green, shiny and usually smooth on the upper surface, smooth, finely hairy, or hairy only along the veins on the lower surface, up to 10 inches long and 8 inches wide; leaf stalk up to 5 inches long, stout, smooth or finely hairy.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing when the leaves begin to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate in slender, drooping clusters, the pistillate in groups of 1-4.
Fruit: Acorns solitary or 2 together, with or without a short stalk, the nut ovoid or ellipsoid, up to ¾ inch long, reddish-brown, not more than ½ enclosed by the cup, the cup with scales not appressed at the tip, thus appearing ragged.
Wood: Hard, heavy, coarse-grained, reddish-brown.
Uses: General construction, fuel, fence posts.
Habitat: Mostly upland woods.
Range: Maine across to south-central Minnesota, south to eastern Texas, east to northern Florida.
Distinguishing Features: Black Oak is easily distinguished by its large, angular, gray-hairy buds and its acorns with their ragged-edged cup.
