Quercus imbricaria Michx.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Quercus imbricaria' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-imbricaria/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Common Names

  • Shingle Oak

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Quercus imbricaria' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-imbricaria/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A deciduous tree, 50 to 60 ft high; young shoots soon glabrous, angled. Leaves narrowly oval or oblong-ovate, 4 to 7 in. long, 1 to 3 in. wide; tapered at both ends, often blunt at the apex, nearly always entire (rarely three-lobed near the apex); dark polished green and glabrous above, covered all the season beneath with a short grey starry down; stalk 14 to 58 in. long. Fruits solitary, seldom in pairs; acorns 12 to 23 in. long, nearly as broad, the shortly-stalked, shallow cup about half covered with thin flattened scales.

Native of the south-eastern and central United States; introduced by John Fraser in 1786. This handsome and striking oak is uncommon in cultivation in spite of its early introduction. It is quite distinct from all other cultivated deciduous oaks in the long, narrow, entire leaves, downy beneath.

At Kew there is a fine broad-leaved specimen of Q. imbricaria in the Oak collection, measuring 66 × 512 ft (1972) and one of 70 × 434 ft at Syon House, London (1967). Apart from these the only large specimens recorded are two at Tortworth, Glos.; their measurements are 84 × 612 ft and 61 × 612 ft (1964),

In Q. incana Bartr. Q. cinerea Michx.), which is probably not in cultivation in Britain, the leaves are entire and downy beneath as they are in Q. imbricaria, but are shaped like those of Q. phellos, and the young stems are downy, not glabrous as in Q. imbricaria.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, Oak Collection, 56 × 512 ft (1986); Syon House, London, 88 × 534 ft (1982); Alexander Park, Hastings, Sussex, pl. 1880, 64 × 734 ft at 4 ft (1983); Tortworth, Glos., 62 × 7 ft and 70 × 614 ft (1973); Bicton, Devon, 66 × 412 ft at 6 ft (1983).