FAGACE^ 



303 



51. Quercus tricolor Willd. Swamp White Oak. 

 Quercus platanoides Sudw. 



Leaves obovate to oblong-obovate, rounded at the narrowed apex, acute or rounded 

 at the gradually narrowed and cuneate entire base, coarsely sinuate-dentate, or sometimes 

 pinnatifid, with oblique rounded or acute entire lobes, when they unfold light bronze- 

 green and pilose above, covered below with silvery white tomentum, with conspicuous 

 glands on the teeth, at maturity thick and firm, dark green and lustrous on the upper sur- 

 face, pale or often silvery white or tawny on the lower surface, 5'-6' long, 2'-4' wide, with 

 a slender yellow midrib, primary veins running to the points of the lobes, and conspicuous 



Fig. 278 



reticulate veinlets; turning in the autumn dull yellow-brown or occasionally orange-color 

 or rarely scarlet before falling; petioles stout, pilose at first, becoming glabrous, \'-\' in 

 length. Flowers: staminate in hairy aments 3'-4' long; calyx light yellow-green, hirsute 

 with pale hairs, and deeply divided into 5-9 lanceolate acute segments rather shorter than 

 the stamens; pistillate in few-flowered spikes on elongated peduncles covered like the 

 involucral scales with thick white or tawny tomentum; stigmas bright red. Fruit usually 

 in pau*s on slender dark brown glabrous puberulous or pubescent stalks l'-4' in length; 

 nut ovoid, with a broad base, rounded, acute and pubescent at apex, light chest- 

 nut-brown, f ' -\\' long, \'-\ ' thick, inclosed for about one third its length in the thick cup- 

 shaped light brown cup pubescent on the inner surface, hoary-tomentose, and sometimes 

 tuberculate or roughened toward the base on the outer surface by the thickened contorted 

 tips of the ovate acute scales, thin, free, acute and chestnut-brown higher on the cup, and 

 often forming a short fringe-like border on its margin, or sometimes entirely covered 

 by thin scales with free acute tips. 



A tree, usually 60-70 or exceptionally 100 high, with a trunk 2-3 or occasionally 

 8-9 in diameter, rather small branches generally pendulous below and rising above into 

 a narrow round-topped open head and often furnished with short pendulous laterals, and 

 stout branchlets, green, lustrous, and slightly scurfy-pubescent when they first appear, 

 light orange color or reddish brown and glabrous or puberulous during their first winter, 

 becoming darker and often purplish and clothed with a glaucous bloom. Winter-buds 

 broadly ovoid and obtuse, or subglobose to ovoid and acute, ' long, with light chestnut- 

 brown scales usually pilose above the middle. Bark of young stems and small branches 

 smooth, reddish or purplish brown, separating freely into large papery persistent scales 

 curling back and displaying the bright green inner bark; becoming on old trunks l'-2' 



