Quercus marilandica Muenchh. Blackjack oak. Family Fagaceae. ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number 19374. USDA PLANTS Symbol QUMA3. TROPICOS # 13100099.
Images Branchlet with leaves. Individual leaf 1. Individual leaf 2. Individual leaf 3. Branchlet with buds. Close-up of buds. Herbarium sheet 1. Herbarium sheet 2. Herbarium sheet 3.
Plant habit and life style. Plants Angiosperms, monoecious, (5)1012(15) m tall.
Stems. Pith continuous. Young twigs (1-year-old or less) brown or reddish-brown, (1)24(5) mm wide, pubescent, puberulent or tomentose. Twigs (24 years old) glabrous or glabrate or pubescent. Leaf scars half-round, bundle scars numerous, stipule scars inconspicuous, stipule scars not circumferential. Bark of mature trunks checkered or furrowed or plated.
Buds. Buds axillary or terminal, bud clusters at ends of twigs present, brown or reddish-brown, 510 mm long, conic or ellipsoid or ovoid, blunt or sharp, pubescent, bud scales imbricate.
Leaves. Leaves deciduous, simple, petiolate, alternate or spiral, spreading or ascending, (5)7.525(30) cm long, (4)720 cm wide, obdeltoid or obovate, leaf margins entire, unlobed or shallowly lobed, pinnately lobed, leaf lobes 3(5) per leaf, leaf apices acute or apiculate or mucronate or rounded, leaf bases cordate or cuneate or obtuse or rounded. Leaf upper surface green or yellow-green, glabrous or glabrate or pubescent. Leaf lower surface brown or green or orange or yellow, glabrate or pubescent or with tufts in vein axils, puberulent or stellate or tomentose. Leaf venation pinnate. Petioles 0.52 cm long, glabrous or glabrate or pubescent, tomentose. Stipules present, caducous, not circumferential.
Flowers. Flowering March or April or May. Inflorescences axillary, catkins or flowers solitary or spikes, flowers sessile. Flowers unisexual, epigynous. Perianth. Calyx radially symmetric, synsepalous. Sepals 46 per flower, calyx tubes 23 mm long, brown or green or red, ovate, pubescent, caducous. Corolla absent. Androecium. Stamens (2)6(12) per flower, separate. Gynoecium. Ovaries inferior, pistils 1 per flower. Gynoecium syncarpous, 3 carpels per flower, styles 3 per pistil, placentation axile. Other floral features. Hypanthia present, involucres present.
Fruits. Fruits accessory fruits or acorns or nuts, (1)1.52(2.5) cm long, brown, fruit maturation 2 years.
Habitat. Habitat dry-mesic upland forests or mixed forest edges.
Special Diagnostic Characters. Staminate flowers in pendent catkins, pistillate flowers solitary or in few- to many-flowered spikes; pistillate flowers enclosed by a scaly involucre which develops into the acorn cup.
Cite this publication as: ‘Stephen M. Seiberling, Alan S. Weakley, and Peter S. White (2005 onwards). Common Trees of the North Carolina Piedmont: Identification, Descriptions, Illustrations, and Glossary. Version: March 7, 2006. <http://www.ibiblio.org/openkey/intkey/>’.
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