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Chestnut Oak

Quercus montana

Summary 6

Quercus montana, the chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak group, Quercus sect. Quercus. It is native to the eastern United States, where it is one of the most important ridgetop trees from southern Maine southwest to central Mississippi, with an outlying northwestern population in southern Michigan. It is also sometimes called "rock oak" because of its presence in montane and other rocky habitats.

As a consequence of its dry habitat and ridgetop exposure, Quercus montana is not usually a large tree, typically growing to 60 – 72 feet tall; specimens growing in better conditions can grow up to 130 – 140 ft tall. It is readily identified by its massively-ridged dark gray-brown bark, the thickest of any eastern North American oak. The leaves are 4+3⁄4 – 7+3⁄4 inches long and 2+1⁄4 – 4 in broad, shallowly lobed with 10–15 rounded lobes on each margin; they are virtually identical to the leaves of swamp chestnut oak and chinkapin oak, but the trees can readily be distinguished by the bark, that of the chinkapin oak being a light ash-gray and somewhat peeling like that of the white oak and that of swamp chestnut oak being paler ash-gray and scaly.

This species is a predominant ridge-top tree in eastern North American hardwood forests. Young chestnut oaks are easily capable of reproducing from stump sprouts if cut. A significant amount of chestnut oaks in the Appalachians are trees that regrew from stump sprouts after being logged. It is a long-lived tree, with high-quality timber when well-formed. The acorns of the chestnut oak are a valuable wildlife food.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) dogtooth77, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/53817483@N00/1526803817
  2. (c) jennifer_clifford, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by jennifer_clifford
  3. (c) Maya, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Maya
  4. (c) Erik Danielsen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Erik Danielsen
  5. (c) Cameron Christopher Dunn, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Cameron Christopher Dunn
  6. Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_montana

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