FAGACEAE 



Black Jack 



Quercus marilandica, Muench. 



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

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

 es 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; 

 stamens 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 # 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. 



