Post Oak 



341 



brown. Its winter buds are very small, broadly ovoid and blunt, 

 numerous, oval or obovate in 

 outline, 6 to 9 cm. long, 2- 

 ' lobed to 5-lobed mostly above 

 the middle, the sinuses rather 

 shallow and rounded at the 

 bottom, apex rounded or 

 notched, the base roundish or 

 tapering; they are light green, 

 smooth and shining with yel- 

 lowish impressed midrib 

 above, pale or glaucous, more 

 or less hairy on the promi- 

 nent veins beneath, the petiole 

 short and stout. The fruit 

 ripens the first season, is ses- 

 sile or nearly so; nut oblong 

 to ovoid-oblong, from 12 to 14 



The leaves are 



Fig. 299. — Ashe's Oak. 



mm. long, its apex tipped and hairy; cup top-shaped or hemispheric, 11 to 14 

 mm. across, embracing over half of the nut and covered with sharp-pointed scales 

 which are much larger toward the base of the cup than at the rim. 



62. POST OAK — Querciis stellata Wangenheim 

 Quercus minor Sargent. Quercus alba minor Marshall. Quercus ob'tusiloba Michaux 



A tree of 



dry or rocky soils from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Mis- 

 souri, and Kansas, southward to Florida 

 and Texas, attaining a maximum height of 

 about 30 meters, with a trunk diameter of 

 1.5 m. 



The branches are stout and spreading, 

 forming a close round-topped tree. The 

 bark is up to 3 cm. thick, deeply furrowed, 

 the flattish ridges covered with close gray or 

 brownish gray scales. The twigs are stout, 

 brownish-woolly, becoming smooth, gray, or 

 dark brown to almost black. The winter 

 buds are broadly ovoid. The leaves are 

 obovate in outUne, i to 2 dm. long, the 

 usually 5 lobes broad and spreading, the 

 middle pair of sinuses deep, wide and ob- 

 FiG. 300. — Post Oak. lique, rounded at the bottom, the lobes 



