341 



The leaves are 



Post Oak 



brown. Its winter buds are very small, broadly ovoid and blunt, 

 numerous, oval or obovate in 

 outline, 6 to 9 cm. long, 2- 

 lobed to 5-lobed mostly above 

 the middle, the sinuses rather 

 shallow and rounded at the 

 bottom, apex rounded or 

 notched, the base roundish or 

 tapering; they are light green, 

 smooth and shining with yel- 

 lowish impressed midrib 

 above, pale or glaucous, more 

 or less hair}^ on the promi- 

 nent veins beneath, the petiole 

 short and stout. The fruit 

 ripens the first season, is ses- 

 sile or nearly so; nut oblong 



to ovoid-oblong, from 12 to 14 ^^^- ^99- 



mm. long, its apex tipped and hairy; cup top-shaped or hemispheric, 11 to 14 

 mm. across, embracing over half of the nut and covered with sharp-pointed scales 

 which are much larger toward the base of the cup than at the rim. 



Ashe's Oak. 



62. POST OAK Quercus stellata Wangenheim 

 Qiiercus minor Sargent. Quercus alba minor Marshall. Quercus obtusiloba Michaux 



A tree of 



Fig. 



dry or rocky soils from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mis- 

 souri, and Kansas, southward to Florida 

 and Texas, attaining a maximum height of 

 about 30 meters, with a trunk diameter of 

 1.5 m. 



The branches are stout and spreading, 

 forming a close round-topped tree. The 

 bark is up to 3 cm. thick, deeply furrowed, 

 the flattish ridges covered with close gray or 

 brownish gray scales. The twigs are stout, 

 brownish- woolly, becoming smooth, gray, or 

 dark brown to almost black. The winter 

 buds are broadly ovoid. The leaves are 

 obovate in outhne, i to 2 dm. long, the 

 usually 5 lobes broad and spreading, the 

 middle pair of sinuses deep, wide and ob- 

 Post Oak. lique, rounded at the bottom, the lobes 



?oo 



