SPANISH OAK 



(Quercus Digitata) 



ONE of the first difficulties in an attempt to dear up the misunder- 

 standings regarding Spanish oak is to confine the name to the 

 species to which it belongs. That is no easy task t because the name has 

 been applied to numerous oaks in various parts of the country, and 

 without any apparent reason. Some of these bear little resemblance to 

 Spanish oak and grow almost wholly outside its range. It is not a case 

 of mistaking one for the other, for there is no mistake. Some speak of 

 the common red oak as Spanish oak, others bestow that name on yellow 

 oak, others on black jack oak, or scarlet oak, or anyone of several others. 

 It appears, however, that the name is not applied to any member of the 

 white oak group. 



It is said that Spanish oak and Norway pine were named by the 

 same process. Each got its name because it was supposed to be similar 

 to a species in the old country the pine like an evergreen of north 

 Europe, and the oak like a broadleaf tree of Spain. It was learned later 

 that both the American species were different from those of Europe which 

 they resembled. 



The peculiar drooping foliage of Spanish oak gives the tree a char- 

 acter which impresses a person who sees the full-leafed crown for the 

 first time. The leaves are six or seven inches long and four or five 

 wide. Their forms vary within wide limits, and their shapes change 

 from week to week while growing. Some have no lobes or sinuses, others 

 have them in rudimentary form only, while in still others they are well 

 developed. 



The tree is often called red oak, particularly by lumbermen who 

 cut it and send it to market with red oak. In Louisiana it is known as 

 Spanish water oak, there being much resemblance between it and water 

 oak (Quercus nigrd) with which it is associated. Its range covers more 

 than 200,000 square miles, beginning at the north in New Jersey and 

 following down the coast regions to central Florida. It extends west- 

 ward into Texas to the valley of the Brazos river; northward to Missouri 

 and southern Indiana and Illinois. It does not grow far inland from the 

 coast in the north Atlantic states, but further south it is common on the 

 coast plain between the sea and the base of the mountains. It is often 

 found on dry sand hills in that region. The largest Spanish oaks on 

 record grew in the lower Ohio valley, particularly along the Wabash 

 river. It is usually of medium size and large trunks are seldom seen. 

 The average height is seventy or eighty feet, diameter two or three. In 



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