Chinkapin oak

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Chinkapin oak leaves

Chinkapin oak

Chinkapin oak staminate flowers

Chinkapin oak

Chinkapin oak pistillate flowers

Chinkapin oak leaf

Chinkapin oak flowers

Chinkapin oak buds

Chinkapin oak acorns

Chinkapin oak pistillate flowers

Chinkapin oak bark

Chinkapin oak leaves

Chinkapin oak buds

Chinkapin oak habit

Chinkapin oak acorns

Morphology

Trunk

Erect, diameter 12 to 40 inches; crown narrow, rounded; bark thin, gray, less than .5 inch thick, shallow furrows, short, flaky ridges.

Twigs

Slender, stiff, fine-pubescent, becoming glabrous, initially greenish, becoming brown or gray; buds egg-shaped, slightly hairy, reddish-brown; leaf scars half-round, somewhat elevated; bundle scars 10 or more, scattered.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, deciduous, oblong-lanceolete to obovate, 1.2 to 8 inches long, .4 to 4 inches wide, firm, leathery; upper surface dark-green, shiny; lower surface pale green, pubescent when young, becoming glabrous when mature; margins coarsely toothed, teeth 6-13 on each side, often directed forward; main veins extending to each tooth, parallel; tip short- or long-pointed; stalk slender, .5 to 1.4 inch long.

Flowers

May, with the leaves partly grown; male and female flowers on same tree; staminate flowers in catkins 2.8 to 4 inches long; calyx bell-shaped, 5-8-lobed, yellowish, hairy; corolla absent stamens 4-8; anthers yellow, small; pistillate flowers sessile or in short spikes, spherical, about .6 inch in diameter, woolly; stigma disc-like, 3-lobed, yellowish-green.

Fruit

September; acorns 1-2, 1-seeded, sessile or short-stalked; cup hemispheric, .25 to .4 inch high, .3 to .8 inch wide, brownish-gray, lumpy, enclosing 1/4 to 1/2 of nut; scales small, closely overlapping, gray-pubescent; nut egg-shaped, .5 to 1 inch long, brown, downy, tip rounded, base flattened; kernel edible, sweet.

Ecology

Habitat

Rocky hillsides, bluffs, upland woods, rich bottom lands, frequently in woodland borders, sometimes restricted to north slopes; calcareous soils.

Distribution

East half of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans steeped the bark and took the tea for vomiting.

Additional Notes