Quercus lyrata in Iowa 
B. SHIMEK 
(WITH PLATES 16 AND 17) 
The discovery of the overcup oak, Quercus lyrata Walter, 
in lowa, by the writer, so far extends the range of this species 
that it seems worthy of more detailed record. Sargent says* 
that the species “is distributed from the valley of the Patunxent 
River in southern Maryland southward near the coast to western 
Florida, through the Gulf States to the valley of the Trinity 
River in Texas, through Arkansas and southwestern Missouri, 
where in a swamp near Allentown, there is a single specimen, 
the most northern known representative of the species west of 
the Mississippi River, to central Tennessee, southern Indiana, 
and Jasper County, Illinois.”’ 
Other authors give the distribution less fully, but in all the 
references consulted the range falls within that here given. The 
herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis 
contains several specimens from the southern counties of Illinois, 
and from Butler County, Missouri, but these localities also 
lie within the territory given by Sargent. 
The Towa specimens are located in lowa County, near the 
town of Amana. This not only extends the northern range 
west of the Mississippi, but the locality is more than two degrees 
of latitude north of the Maryland and Lllinois localities, making 
this the northernmost point from which the species is known. 
Thus far three trees have been found. They are located in 
the low bottom land timber along the Iowa River, the locality 
being subject to overflow and always quite moist. They are 
associated with the large, bottomland form of the bur oak, 
Quercus macrocarpa, a few trees of Q. bicolor, and the ordinary 
bottomland species of Iowa valleys, such as Ulmus americana, 
Betula nigra, Populus deltoides, Acer saccharinum, A. Negundo, 
Plaianus occidentalis, and Juglans nigra. Other trees of the 
species will probably be found among the “bur-oaks.”’ 
he finest of the three specimens (shown in PLATE 16, FIG. 1) 
is about 70 feet high, and the trunk measures 22 inches in diam- 
eter at a height of 3 feet. Its rate of growth is probably approxi- 
*Silva of North America 8: 48. 1895. 
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