Laurel Oak 



303 



20. LAUREL OAK — Quercus laurifolia Michaux 



A tree of river shores and swamps on the coastal plain from Virginia to Florida 

 and Louisiana, attaining a maximum height of 30 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of I m. 



The branches are rather slender, spreading or ascending, forming a dense, 

 round-topped tree. The bark of large trunks is up to 5 cm. thick, fissured into 

 fiat nearly black ridges; on younger stems it is much thinner and nearly smooth 

 or covered by scales of a brown color. The twigs are slender, smooth and red- 

 dish, becoming brownish and finally dark gray. The winter buds are narrowly 

 ovoid or oval, pointed, shghtly angled, 1.5 to 3 

 mm. long and bright red. The leaves are ob- 

 long to oval or obovate in outhne, 4 to 13 cm. 

 long, entire or rarely lobed, bristle-pointed, 

 narrowed at the base, the margin somewhat 

 thickened and revolute. They are firm in text- 

 ure, green and very shining above, with round, 

 prominent, raised, yellow midrib beneath, paler 

 at maturity, smooth and shining, faUing off 

 irregularly during the winter; the leaf-stalk is 

 stout, grooved above, yellowish, i to 3 mm. 

 long. The flowers appear in March and April 

 when the leaves are about one third unfolded, 

 the staminate in clustered hairy catkins 5 to 8 

 cm. long, their calyx hairy on the outer sur- 

 face, deeply 4-lobed; stamens 4 or 5, exserted; ^'°' ^^S-- 

 anthers oblong, slightly notched and yellow. The pistillate flowers are on short 

 smooth stalks, the involucre brown and hairy, about as long as the pointed calyx- 

 lobes; styles recurved and red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of the second 

 year, is sessile or nearly so, usually solitary; nut ovoid or globose-ovoid, i to 1.5 

 cm. long, h^iry at apex, dark brown, sometimes striped with green; shell thin, 

 pale woolly inside; cup saucer-shaped, i to 1.5 cm. across, reddish brown and 

 silky inside, embracing one fourth to one third of the nut, covered with thin, blunt, 

 reddish brown scales. 



The wood is hard, strong, coarse-grained and dark brown or reddish brown; 

 its specific gravity is about 0.77. It checks badly on drying and is seldom used 

 except for fuel. 



Except for its wider leaves and deeper cup this oak much resembles Q. 

 Phellos. It is a handsome oak and is largely used as a shade or street tree in 

 the southern cities, for which it is well adapted. 



It is also called Swamp laurel oak, Darhngton's oak. Willow oak, and Water 

 oak. 



■ Laurel Oak. 



