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Unlik 



LAUREL OAK 



{Quercus laur-i folia Michx.) 

 THE laurel oak is nowhere abundant in the State, 

 but is gfonerally distributed throuj^li the lower 

 coast region on the banks of streams and in or near 

 swamps and rich hammocks. 



the water oak or the willow 

 oak, it has not been widely 

 planted as a shade tree and 

 so is little known. It is a 

 large tree, reaching a height 

 of 100 feiet and a diam- 

 eter of 3 to 4 feet, with 

 slender branches form- 

 ing a broad dense 

 r u n d-t o p p e d 

 shapely crowTi. 



The bark of 

 young trees is dark 



brown, more or less tinged with red, roughened by 

 small close scales, becoming on older trees nearly 

 black and broken into broad flat ridges. 



The leaves are from 3 to 4 inches long and % to 

 over an inch wide. They bear the same general re- 

 semblance to the laurel that the willow oak does to 

 the willow, and should not be confused with this lat- 

 ter tree because of their greater width in proportion 

 to their length. They are thin and very shiny above, 

 lighter green below and with less gloss. They fall 

 during the early part of the spring and for a few 

 weeks the trees are bare. The tree may be distin- 

 guished from the live oak, which it somewhat re- 

 sembles, by the absence of gray down or fuzz on the 

 under side of the leaves. 



The flowers which appear early are distinctly red. 



The acorn, which matures at the end of the sec- 

 ond year, is dark brown in color and about half an 

 inch long. It is enclosed for about a fourth of its 

 length by a thin saucer-shaped cup covered by thin 

 light red-brown scales. 



The wood is heavy, hard, and coarse-grained. It 

 checks in drying and is used only for fuel. 



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