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Illustration of Black Oak - Charles Sprague Sargent Tree Leaf Plate

Botanist Charles Sprague Sargent's Tree Illustration Collection

From Steve Nix, About.com

Black oak is the most common eastern United States oak. The oak has spiny leaves and acorns that take two years to ripen.
Black Oak

Black Oak

Charles Sprague Sargent
Black oak (Quercus velutina) is a common, medium-sized to large oak of the eastern and midwestern United States. It is sometimes called yellow oak, quercitron, yellowbark oak, or smoothbark oak. It grows best on moist, rich, well-drained soils, but it is often found on poor, dry sandy or heavy glacial clay hillsides where it seldom lives more than 200 years. Good crops of acorns provide wildlife with food. The wood, commercially valuable for furniture and flooring, is sold as red oak. Black oak is seldom used for landscaping.

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