Index    Handbook of the Trees of New England by Lorin Low Dame, Henry Brooks

Quercus velutina, Lam. Black Oak. Yellow Oak.

Quercus tinctoria, Bartram. Quercus coccinea, var. tinctoria, Gray.

Habitat and Range.—Poor soils; dry or gravelly uplands; rocky ridges.

Maine,—York county; New Hampshire,—valley of the lower Merrimac and eastward, absent on the highlands, reappearing within three or four miles of the Connecticut, ceasing at North Charlestown; Vermont,—western and southeastern sections; Massachusetts,—abundant eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,—frequent.

Habit.—One of our largest oaks, 50-75 feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter, exceptionally much larger, attaining its maximum in the Ohio and Mississippi basins; resembling Q. coccinea in the general disposition of its mostly stouter branches; head wide-spreading, rounded; trunk short; foliage deep shining green, turning yellowish or reddish brown in autumn.

Bark.—Bark of trunk dark gray or blackish, often lighter near the seashore, thick, usually rough near the ground even in young trees, in old trees deeply furrowed, separating into narrow, thick, and firmly adherent block-like strips; inner bark thick, yellow, and bitter; branches and branchlets a nearly uniform, mottled gray; season's shoots scurfy-pubescent.

Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds ⅛-¼ inch long, bluntish to pointed, conspicuously clustered at ends of branches. Leaves simple, alternate, of two forms so distinct as to suggest different species, a (Plate XLV, 8) varying towards b (Plate XLV, 6), and b often scarcely distinguishable from the leaf of the scarlet oak; in both forms outline obovate to oval, lobes usually 7, densely woolly when opening, more or less pubescent or scurfy till midsummer or later, dark shining green above, lighter beneath, becoming brown or dull red in autumn.

Form a, sinuses shallow, lobes broad, rounded, mucronate.

Form b, sinuses deep, extending halfway to the midrib or farther, oblong or triangular, bristle-tipped.

Inflorescence.—Early in May. Appearing when the leaves are half grown; sterile catkins 2-5 inches long, with slender, pubescent threads; calyx usually 3-4-lobed; lobes ovate, acute to rounded, hairy-pubescent; stamens 3-7, commonly 4-5; anthers yellow: pistillate flowers reddish, pubescent, at first nearly sessile; stigmas 3, red, divergent, reflexed.

Fruit.—Maturing the second year; nearly sessile or on short footstalks: cup top-shaped to hemispherical; scales less firm than in Q. coccinea, tips papery and transversely rugulose, obtuse or rounded, or some of them acutish, often lacerate-edged, loose towards the thick and open edge of the cup: acorn small: kernel yellow within and bitter.

Horticultural Value.—Hardy throughout New England; grows in well-drained soils, but prefers a rich, moist loam; of vigorous and rapid growth when young, but as it soon begins to show dead branches and becomes unsightly, it is not a desirable tree to plant, and is rarely offered by nurserymen. Propagated from seed.

Note.—Apparently runs into Q. coccinea, from which it may be distinguished by its rougher and darker trunk, the yellow color and bitter taste of the inner bark, its somewhat larger and more pointed buds, the greater pubescence of its inflorescence, young shoots and leaves, the longer continuance of scurf or pubescence upon the leaves, the yellow or dull red shades of the autumn foliage, and by the yellow color and bitter taste of the nut.

Plate XLV.—Quercus velutina.