FAGACEAE 

 Black Jack 



Qncrcus marilandica Muench. 



HABIT. A small, shrubby tree 20-30 feet high, with a 

 trunk diameter of 6-14 inches; spreading, often contorted 

 branches form a rounded or obovoid crown. 



LEAVES. Alternate, simple, 5-7 inches long and broad; 

 broad-obovate ; more or less 3-lobed at the apex, the lobes entire 

 or toothed, bristle-tipped, very variable in size and shape; thick 

 and leathery; very lustrous and dark green above, yellowish and 

 scurfy-pubescent beneath ; petioles short, stout. 



FLOWERS. May, with the leaves; monoecious; the stam- 

 inate in slender, hoary catkins 2-4 inches long; the pistillate 

 rusty-tomentose, on short, rusty-tomentose peduncles; calyx 4-5- 

 lobed, thin, scarious, tinged with red, pale-pubescent; corolla o; 

 slamens 4, with apiculate, red anthers; stigmas recurved, dark 

 red. 



FRUIT. Autumn of second season; short-stalked acorns; 

 cup turbinate, with large, red-brown, rusty-tomentose scales, 

 inclosing about one-half of the nut; nut subglobose, about 24 

 inch long, yellow-brown, puberulous; kernel yellowish. 



WINTER-BUDS. Terminal bud Y 4 inch long, ovoid, acute, 

 prominently angled ; scales light red-brown, rusty-hairy. 



BARK. Twigs at first light red and scurfy, later glabrous, 

 red-brown, and finally brown or ashy gray; thick and almost 

 black on the trunk, divided into nearly square plates. 



WOOD. Heavy, hard, strong, dark -brown, with thick, 

 lighter colored sapwood. 



DISTRIBUTION. Southern Michigan (Ann Arbor and 

 Lansing). 



HABITAT. Dry, sandy or clay barrens. 



NOTES. Rare in Michigan. 



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