BLACK OAK
Quercus velutina, Lam.
Form.—Height 50-100 feet, diameter 2-4 feet; trunk long, clear, slightly tapering; crown spreading and rounded.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 5-10 inches long, lobes usually 7, with coarse, bristle-tipped teeth, thick and firm, dark green and shining above, paler beneath; on lower limbs and young trees, often with rounded, mucronate lobes; petioles yellowish.
Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; the staminate flowers in long, hairy catkins; the pistillate on short stalks, reddish.
Fruit.—Acorns mature the second autumn after flowering; cup deep, cup-shaped, enclosing about ½ of the nut; scales reddish-brown pubescent, tightly appressed at the base, and loosely over-lapping at the edge forming a fringe-like margin; nut small, light reddish-brown, often pubescent; kernel yellow, bitter.
Bark.—Rough with thick cross-fissured ridges, nearly black, inner bark yellow and bitter.
Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, brown, with thin lighter sapwood.
Range.—Northern New England and Ontario, west to Minnesota and Nebraska, south to Florida and Texas.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Common throughout the State except at high elevations.
Habitat.—Rich soils of slopes or drier gravelly soils of ridges.
Notes.—Black Oak is very common but of less value than several of the other oaks. The lumber is similar to that of Red Oak. For the characteristics which distinguish this oak from the species with which it is most often confused, see “Notes” on Red Oak. Yellow Oak and Black Jack are two local names for this oak in West Virginia.