Shumard's oak

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Shumard's oak buds

Shumard's oak pistillate flowers

Shumard's oak fruit

Shumrad's oak

Shumard's oak

Shumard's oak staminate catkins

Shumard's oak habit

Shumard's oak habit

Shumard's oak staminate catkins

Shumard's oak staminate catkins

Shumard's oak bark

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; bark gray to light brown, furrows shallow, ridges flat, long; wood light reddish brown, hard.

Twigs

Reddish brown, rigid, glabrous; leaf scars half-round to triangular; buds grayish brown, ovate, .16 to .3 inch, apex acute, scales glabrous or glabrescent.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .8 to 2.4 inches, glabrous; blade broadly elliptic to obovate in outline, 4 to 8 inches long, 2.4 to 6 inches wide, base obtuse to truncate, margins 5-9-lobed per side, lateral lobes oblong to inversely trowel-shaped, usually expanded distally, spreading or slightly projecting forward, each lobe with 2-9 teeth, terminal lobe similar to lateral lobes, sinuses extending 3/5 to 9/10 distance to midrib, lobe apex acute, bristle-tipped, lower surface glabrous, dull green, upper surface shiny dark green, glabrous.

Flowers

Staminate catkins at base of new growth, 30-40-flowered, pendent, 3.6 to 6 inches; peduncle .2 to .7 inch; pedicels absent; pistillate spikes axillary from new growth, 1-2-flowered; peduncle 0 to .24 inch; pedicels absent. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; staminate: sepals 2-6, connate, calyx lobes .05 inch; petals absent; stamens 4-6; pistillate: sepals 6, connate, calyx free from ovary; petals absent; pistil 1; styles 3.

Fruit

October; acorns, maturing second year; peduncle elongating to .04 to .24 inch; cup saucer-shaped to top-shaped, .28 to .5 inch long, .6 to 1.2 inch wide, enclosing 1/4 to 2/5 of nut, scale apices closely appressed; nut reddish brown to grayish brown, ovoid, .55 to 1.2 inch long, .4 to .8 inch wide, minutely pubescent; seed 1.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain and upland forests, stream banks, bluffs

Distribution

Principally southeast quarter of Kansas