Quercus montana Willd.

A deciduous tree usually not more than 70 ft high in the wild, but occasionally taller specimens are met with; on mountain slopes and rocky places a small scrubby tree; bark very dark, thick, with broad, close ridges; young shoots glabrous. Leaves obovate to oblong-obovate, 3 to 7 in. long, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. wide, tapered at the base, more abruptly so to the apex; from each side the midrib there spring ten to fifteen prominent parallel veins, each of which, except one or two at the base, runs out to the apex of an oblique, rounded tooth. The upper surface is dark, glossy green and glabrous, midrib bright yellow, lower surface green or greyish, coated with fine, appressed stellate down or almost glabrous; stalk yellow, 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, glabrous. Fruits solitary or in pairs, sessile or on a short stout common-stalk; acorns oval, 11⁄4 in. long; cup enclosing one-third to one-half of the acorn, about 3⁄4 in. wide, its scales downy, swollen, fused together except at the tips.

Native of the eastern USA, mainly in the Appalachians and their foothills, where it attains its largest size, but extending north to parts of New England and west to Ohio, Indiana, and N.E. Mississippi; introduced 1800 (perhaps earlier) but never a common tree. It bears a certain resemblance to Q. canariensis, but that species has very distinctive loose floccose hairs on the midrib beneath.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, in oak planting west of Broad Walk, 66 × 53⁄4 ft (1979) and, in Oak Collection, pl. 1904, 64 × 61⁄2 ft (1978).

Q. muehlenbergii – There is a very fine specimen of this species in Kensington Gardens, London, measuring 66 × 91⁄2 ft at 4 ft (1981).