Yellow Oak 



327 



46. CHINQUAPIN OAK Quercus prinoides Willdenow 



This spreading shrub is of wide distribution from Maine to Minnesota, North 

 Carohna, Alabama, and Texas; it sometimes becomes tree-hke and 5 meters tall, 

 with a trunk diameter of 1.25 dm. It is also called Scrub chestnut oak and Dwarf 

 chinquapin oak. 



The light brown bark is scaly. The twigs are slender, dark reddish green and 

 scurfy, soon becoming smooth, passing through various shades of brown to dark 

 brown. The winter buds are ovoid to subglobose, usually blunt, about 3 mm. 

 long and brown. The leaves are obovate, 

 oblanceolate to obovafe'-o^long, 0.5 to 1.5 dm. 

 long, mostly sharp-pointed at the apex, nar- 

 rowed or rounded at the base, coarsely wavy 

 toothed ; they are thin and firm, dark yellow- 

 ish green, smooth and faintly shining above, 

 grayish and finely hairy beneath, the midrib 

 narrow and yellow; they turn bright scarlet 

 to yellow before falling in the autumn; the 

 leaf-stalk is stout, nearly smooth, flattened and 

 grooved, 5 to 15 mm. long. The flowers ap- 

 pear in May or June when the leaves are un- 

 folding, the staminate in hairy catkins 4 to 6 

 cm. long; calyx 4- to 9-lobed, yellowish green 

 and hairy; stamens much exserted, their 

 anthers notched, yellow and smooth. The 

 pistillate flowers are whitish hairy, the styles 

 very short and broad-spreading, hght red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of 

 the first season, is produced in great abundance, sessile or nearly so ; nut oblong 

 to ovoid, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, hairy near the apex, light brown and shining, its seed 

 sweet; cup hemispheric, 13 to 18 mm, across, thin and embracing nearly one half 

 of the nut, covered by ovate, sharp-pointed hoary scales. 



The wood is too meager to be of economic value except for fuel. 



As a shrub it affords variety to plantations by its abundant fruit and beautiful 

 autumnal coloration. The very recently described Q. prinoides rufescens Rehder, 

 a shrub ranging from Nantucket to New Jersey, is a form with some yellowish 

 hairs on twigs and leaves. 



Fig. 283. Chinquapin Oak. 



47. YELLOW OAK Quercus Muhlenbergii Engelmann 



Quercus Priniis acuminata Michaux. Quercus acuminata Houba 



This beautiful oak grows from Vermont to Minnesota, Florida and Texas, 

 usually in hmestone soils, reaching a maximum height of 48 meters, with a trunk 



