LAUREL OAK
Quercus imbricaria, Michx.
Form.—Height 50-100 feet, diameter 1-3 feet; crown pyramidal or round-topped and open, with drooping lateral branches.
Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 4-6 inches long, oblong or lanceolate, margins entire or sometimes undulate, with acute apex, dark green and lustrous above, pale and hairy beneath.
Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; staminate flowers borne on long catkins; the pistillate on short stalks.
Fruit.—Acorns mature the second autumn after the flowers; cup saucer-shaped, brown and glossy inside, with reddish-brown scales, and enclosing about ½ of the ovoid, dark brown, often striate nut.
Bark.—With shallow fissures and with ridges having brown scales.
Wood.—Heavy, hard, coarse-grained, reddish-brown.
Range.—Pennsylvania to Georgia west to Michigan. Nebraska and Arkansas.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Locally distributed in many parts of the State, but nowhere common. Observed in Barbour, Grant, Hardy, Mason, Monongalia, Morgan, and Upshur counties.
Habitat.—Prefers bottom lands along streams.
Notes.—This oak is unusual in appearance since the leaves are entirely without lobes. It cannot be recommended for forestry purposes.