Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SHUMARD'S OAK

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Quercus shumardii Buckley

Riley County, Kansas

Height: To 104 feet

Family: Fagaceae - Beech Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Trunks:

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.

Habitat:

Floodplain and upland forests, stream banks, bluffs

Distribution:

Principally southeast quarter of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Shumard's oak bark