General:
Deciduous tree with heavy, craggy branches, up to 25 m tall but often small, shrubby and as short as 1 m in dry, rocky habitats; trunks up to 1 m wide; bark light grey with thick scaly ridges.

Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, blades oblong to egg-shaped in outline with 3-7 lobes per side, the lobes entire or 2-3 toothed, up to 12 cm long with stalks 1-2 cm long, the largest sinuses extending more than halfway to the midrib, bright shiny green and glabrous above, paler below with reddish to yellow hairs, turning yellowish-brown in the fall.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of tiny inconspicuous male and female flowers, these separate but on the same tree; female flowers clustered or single surrounded by a scaly cuplike involucre; male flowers numerous in catkins.

Fruits:
Acorns, 1-seeded, maturing in one season, unstalked, egg-shaped to nearly round, 2-3 cm long; cups shallow, bumpy, hairy within.

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Mid Spring

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Summer to Fall

Source:  The USDA