Quercus velutina Lam. Black oak. Family Fagaceae. ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number 19447. USDA PLANTS Symbol QUVE. TROPICOS # 13100155.
Images • Branchlet with leaves. • Individual leaf 1. • Individual leaf 2. • Individual leaf 3. • Individual leaf 4. • Branchlet with buds. • Close-up of buds. • Close-up of fruits. • Herbarium sheet 1. • Herbarium sheet 2. • Herbarium sheet 3. • Herbarium sheet 4. • Herbarium sheet 5.
Detailed Description:
Plant habit and life style. Plants Angiosperms, monoecious, (15–)20–35(–45) m tall.
Stems. Pith continuous. Young twigs (1-year-old or less) reddish-brown, (1.5–)2.5–4.5(–5) mm wide, glabrous or glabrate or pubescent. Twigs (2–4 years old) glabrous. Leaf scars half-round, bundle scars numerous, stipule scars inconspicuous, stipule scars not circumferential. Bark of mature trunks furrowed or ridged.
Buds. Buds axillary or terminal, bud clusters at ends of twigs present, brown or gray, 6–12 mm long, ellipsoid or ovoid or ovoid-conic, sharp, pubescent, bud scales imbricate.
Leaves. Leaves deciduous, simple, petiolate, alternate or spiral, (10–)12–25(–35) cm long, 8–15 cm wide, obovate or oval or ovate, leaf margins serrate, shallowly lobed or moderately lobed or deeply lobed, pinnately lobed, leaf lobes 5–9 per leaf, leaf apices acuminate or acute or apiculate or obtuse, leaf bases cuneate or oblique or obtuse or truncate. Leaf upper surface green, glabrous or glabrate or pubescent, stellate. Leaf lower surface brown or green, glabrate or pubescent or with tufts in vein axils, stellate. Leaf venation pinnate. Petioles (1–)2.5–7(–8) cm long, glabrous or glabrate or pubescent. Stipules present, caducous, not circumferential.
Flowers. Flowering April or May. Inflorescences axillary, catkins or flowers solitary or spikes, flowers sessile. Flowers unisexual, epigynous. Perianth. Calyx radially symmetric, synsepalous. Sepals (2–)6(–8) per flower, caducous. Corolla absent. Androecium. Stamens (2–)6(–12) per flower, separate. Gynoecium. Ovaries inferior, pistils 1 per flower. Gynoecium syncarpous, 3 carpels per flower, styles 3 per pistil, placentation axile. Other floral features. Hypanthia present, involucres present.
Fruits. Fruits accessory fruits or acorns or nuts, 1.2–2.5 cm long, brown or reddish-brown, fruit maturation 2 years.
Habitat. Habitat bottomland forests or dry-mesic upland forests or mesic upland forests or mixed forest edges or suburban plantings.
Special Diagnostic Characters. Staminate flowers in pendent catkins, pistillate flowers solitary or in few- to many-flowered spikes; pistillate flowers enclosed by a scaly involucre which develops into the acorn cup.
Cite this publication as: ‘Stephen M. Seiberling, Alan S. Weakley, and Peter S. White (2005 onwards). Common Trees of the North Carolina Piedmont: Identification, Descriptions, Illustrations, and Glossary. Version: March 7, 2006. <http://www.ibiblio.org/openkey/intkey/>’.
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