POST OAK
File Size: 80 KB
 
Quercus stellata  Wangenh.
Cherokee County, Kansas
Height: To 75 feet
Family: Fagaceae - Beech Family
Flowering Period:   April, May
Trunks: Erect; bark gray to dark brown, fissures deep, ridges flat, blocky; wood light brown, hard.
Twigs: Reddish brown or yellowish brown to dark brown or gray, rigid, densely stellate-hairy; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds brown, ovoid, .12 to .24 inch, apex obtuse, scales sparsely pubescent.
Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .12 to .8 inch, pubescent; blade obovate to inversely triangular or elliptic in outline, 1.6 to 6 inches long, .8 to 4 inches wide, base attenuate to cordate, margins 1-3-lobed per side, lateral lobes oblong to ovate, spreading, distal lateral lobes and terminal lobe sometimes with 1-3 shallow lobes, terminal lobe similar in size and shape to distal laterals, sinuses extending 2/3 to 9/10 distance to midrib, lobe apex obtuse to rounded, not bristle-tipped, lower surface yellowish green, densely hairy with appressed-stellate hairs and scattered glandular hairs, upper surface shiny to dull dark green, glabrate or sparsely stellate-hairy.
Flowers: Inflorescences staminate catkins at base of new growth, 20-30-flowered, pendent, 3.2 to 4 inches; peduncle .3 to .8 inch; pedicels absent; pistillate spikes axillary from new growth, 1-3-flowered; peduncle 0 to .16 inch; pedicels absent. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; staminate: sepals 2-6, connate, calyx lobes .05 inch; petals absent; stamens 5-8; pistillate: sepals 6, connate, calyx adnate to ovary; petals absent; pistil 1; styles 3.
Fruit: October; acorns, maturing first year; peduncle elongating to 0 to .24 inch; cup top-shaped to hemispheric, .28 to .6 × .43 to 1 inch, enclosing 1/3 to 1/2 of nut, scale apices closely appressed; nut light brown, ovoid to globose, .4 to .8 inch, glabrous or minutely pubescent; seed 1.
Habitat: Dry, sandy to gravelly or rocky upland forests and woodlands, dry slopes, pastures.
Distribution: East 1/3 of Kansas
Origin: Native
Comments: Perhaps the most recognizable feature of Quercus stellata is its cross-shaped leaf blades, though trees in some parts of the range do not bear leaves so characteristically shaped. In Kansas, post oak is most abundant on sandy soils.

Post oak leaves
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Post oak staminate catkins
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Post oak bark
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Post oak buds
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Post oak habit
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Post oak leaves
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Cherokee County, Kansas