Trees of Alabama and the Southeast Home Page

 Leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous, leathery, and variable in shape with 5-7 bristle-tipped lobes and often with hair underneath.  Sun leaves are usually more deeply lobed and may look like scarlet oak. Bark is gray-black, darker and blocky at the base, and may show white tracks on the upper stem on larger trees.  Inner bark is yellow-orange whereas the inner bark of similar species, northern red oak and scarlet oak, is dull orange-brown.  Buds are angled, light-brown and wooly.  Fruit is an acorn 3/4 inches long with a hairy bowl-shaped cap covering half the nut.  The acorn matures in two seasons.  Black oak is found on a variety of sites in the east and central U.S.   Intermediate shade tolerance.  The wood is commercially important and used for flooring and cabinets. Acorns eaten by game birds, deer, bear and many small mammals.

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All text and photographs are intended for educational purposes only and are not for commercial use in any form.  All photographs are copyrighted by the named photographer(s), text copyright by Lisa Samuelson. © 2005, all rights reserved. Photographs by Mike Hogan or Todd Langston.