POST OAK
Quercus stellata, Wang.
Form.—Height 50-75 feet, diameter 2-3 feet, trunk usually short; the crown rounded, with spreading branches.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, about 4-5 inches long, usually with five lobes, the middle pair largest but all short and broad; thick and leathery, nearly smooth above, covered beneath with dense grayish or yellowish stellate pubescence.
Flowers.—May; monoecious; the staminate on long drooping catkins; the pistillate short-stalked and woolly, with bright red stigmas.
Fruit.—Acorn ripening in autumn after flowers; cup small, thin, hairy inside, scales flat and woolly; nut small, oval ½-¾ inch long, brown, sometimes marked with nearly black longitudinal stripes.
Bark.—Similar to that of White Oak, but usually rougher and more yellowish.
Wood.—Heavy, hard, close-grained, durable in contact with the soil, brown with thick sapwood.
Range.—New England, where it is a shrub, southward to Florida and Texas, and west to Kansas.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Distributed in nearly all the hilly parts of the State, though nowhere very common and in some sections rare.
Habitat.—Prefers dry sandy or gravelly soil.
Notes.—The Post Oak in winter may easily be mistaken for a White Oak, but in summer and fall the small acorns and the peculiar lobing of the leaves assist the student in distinguishing it from other species. It is not commercially important but should be encouraged to grow on account of the superior lasting qualities of the wood when used for fence posts or otherwise in contact with the soil.