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Laurel Oak

Quercus imbricaria Michx.

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The wood of Quercus imbricaria was once an important source of shingles, hence its common name.

The Cherokee used the bark of Quercus imbricaria to treat indigestion, chronic dysentery, mouth sores, chapped skin, general sores, chills and fevers, lost voice, milky urine, and as an antiseptic and a general tonic (D. E. Moerman 1986).

This species reportedly hybridizes with Q . coccinea (W. H. Wagner Jr. and D. J. Schoen 1976); with Q . falcata (producing Q . × anceps E. J. Palmer) and Q . ilicifolia (D. M. Hunt 1989); with Q . marilandica , Q . palustris , and Q . phellos (H. A. Gleason 1952); and with Q . rubra , Q . shumardii , and Q . velutina .

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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 3 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
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Description

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Trees , deciduous, to 20 m. Bark grayish brown, fissures and ridges shallow, inner bark pinkish. Twigs greenish brown to brown, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Terminal buds brown to reddish brown, ovoid, 3-6 mm, distinctly 5-angled in cross section, scales minutely ciliate on margins. Leaves: petiole 10-20 mm, glabrous. Leaf blade ovate or elliptic to obovate, usually widest near middle, 80-200 × 15-75 mm, base obtuse to cuneate, occasionally rounded, margins entire with 1 apical awn, apex acute to obtuse; surfaces abaxially uniformly pubescent, adaxially lustrous, glabrous. Acorns biennial; cup deeply saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, 5-9 mm high × 10-18 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface puberulent, inner surface light brown to reddish brown and glabrous or with a few hairs around nut scar, scale tips tightly appressed, acute; nut ovoid to subglobose, 9-18 × 10-18 mm, often striate, having 1 or more indistinct rings of minute pits at apex, glabrate, scar diam. 5-9 mm. 2 n = 24.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 3 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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eFloras

Distribution

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Ark., Del., D.C., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Md., Mich., Mo., N.J., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.
license
cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 3 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
original
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eFloras

Flowering/Fruiting

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Flowering spring.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 3 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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eFloras

Habitat

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Moderately dry to mesic slopes and uplands, occasionally in ravines and bottoms; 100-700m.
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copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 3 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
original
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eFloras

Quercus imbricaria

provided by wikipedia EN

Quercus imbricaria, the shingle oak, is a deciduous tree in the red oak group of oaks. It is native primarily to the Midwestern and Upper South regions of North America.

Description

Quercus imbricaria at Bayard Cutting Arboretum, Long Island, N.Y.

Quercus imbricaria is usually 15–18 meters (50–60 feet) high, maximum height 100 ft, with a broad pyramidal head when young, becoming in old age, broad-topped and open. Trunk up to 1 m (40 inches) in diameter (rarely 1.4 m or 56 in). It reaches its largest size in southern Illinois and Indiana, although the national champion is 104' by 68' in Cincinnati, Ohio.

  • Bark: Light brown, scaly; on young stems light brown, smooth. Branchlets slender, dark green and shining at first, later become light brown, finally dark brown.[3]
  • Wood: Pale reddish brown, sapwood lighter; heavy, hard coarse-grained, checks badly in drying; used for shingles and sometimes in construction. Sp. gr., 0.7529; weight of cu. ft., 46.92 lbs.[3]
  • Winter buds: Light brown, ovate, acute, one-eight inch long.[3]
  • Leaves: Alternate, oblong or obovate, four to six inches long, one to two inches wide, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, acute or rounded at apex, sometimes entire or with undulated margins, sometimes more or less three-lobed. They come out of the bud involute, bright red, covered with rusty down above and white tomentum below. When full grown are dark green, smooth and shining above, pale green or pale brown, downy below; midribs stout yellow, grooved above, primary veins slender. In autumn they become dark red above, pale beneath, midribs darken, then the leaf. Petioles stout, hairy, flattened, grooved. Stipules about one-half inch long, caducous.[3]
  • Flowers: May, when leaves are half grown. Staminate flowers borne on tomentose aments two to three inches long. Bracts linear-lanceoate. Calyx pale yellow, downy, four-lobed; stamens four to five; anthers yellow. Pistillate flowers borne on slender tomentose peduncles. Involucres scales are downy, about as long as the calyx lobes; stigmas short, reflexed, greenish-yellow.[3]
  • Acorns: Ripen in autumn of second year, about 18 months after pollination.[3] Stalked, solitary or in pairs; nut almost spherical, 9–18 millimeters or 12 to 23 in long; cup embraces one-half to two-thirds nut, is cup-shaped covered with light red brown, downy scales, rounded or acute at apex. Kernel very bitter.[4][3]

It is distinguished from most other oaks by its leaves, which are shaped like laurel leaves, 8–20 cm (4–10 in) long and 1.5–7.5 cm (12–3 in) broad with an untoothed margin; they are bright green above, paler and somewhat downy beneath.

Hybrids

Quercus × leana Nutt. (Q. velutina x Q. imbricaria) (Lea's hybrid oak), is a naturally occurring hybrid of the black oak and shingle oak, growing to 20 m, a native of south-eastern North America, also found in a few European collections.

Distribution and habitat

It is native primarily to the Midwestern and Upper South regions of North America, from southern New York west to northern Illinois and eastern Kansas, and south to central Alabama and Arkansas. It is abundant in the lower Ohio Valley and middle Mississippi Valley, and rare in the east.

It is most commonly found growing in uplands with good drainage, less often along lowland streams, at altitudes of 100–700 m (330–2,300 ft).

Ecology

The acorn is an important food for squirrels and some birds.

Uses

In the past, the wood was important for making shingles, from which the common name derives.

References

  1. ^ Wenzell, K.; Kenny, L.; Jerome, D. (2017). "Quercus imbricaria". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T194174A111278885. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T194174A111278885.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Quercus imbricaria Michx.". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nixon, Kevin C. (1997). "Quercus imbricaria". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. ^ Keeler, Harriet L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 372–374.

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Quercus imbricaria: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Quercus imbricaria, the shingle oak, is a deciduous tree in the red oak group of oaks. It is native primarily to the Midwestern and Upper South regions of North America.

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Wikipedia authors and editors
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wikipedia EN