FAGACE^E BEECH FAMILY 



Quercus alba, L. 

 May-June White Oak. 



Acorns ripe 

 September-October 



Quercus: classical Latin name of the oak. 

 Alba: Latin for white. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: thickets and "low, swampy 

 woods." 



THE TREE: usually six to ten feet high, "at least fifteen 

 feet high in low, swampy woods." "The stoutest native 

 tree of any kind met with on the island was a white oak 

 in a dense thicket which measured forty inches in circum- 

 ference a foot above the base." The bark is light grey 

 varying to dark grey, with shallow fissures, scaling off in 

 thin plates. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; obovate; four inches to seven 

 inches long; green above; beneath pale and with few 

 hairs, more when young; thin; pinnatifid into three to 

 nine oblong, obtuse, toothed or entire lobes, without 

 bristles, the apex lobe rounded; with short, stout, grooved, 

 ad flattened stems 



3E FLOWERS; minute, in catkins; the staminate hairy, 

 two and a half to three inches long, calyx bright yellow, 

 anthers yellow; the pistillate on short stems, the scales 

 reddish, stigmas bright red. 



THE FRUIT: a nut, called an "acorn"; the cup part ovoid 

 or oblong-round at the apex, enclosing about one-fourth 

 of the nut, covered with soft matted wool on the outside. 



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