Identifying Characteristics
| Habitat: | Swamp chestnut oak grows best in moist, poorly drained, bottomland soils where inundation occurs for a short duration. It is a common resident of mesic hardwoods or mixed pine and hardwood stands in bottomland forests, bluffs, ridges, and flatwoods with subsurface limestone. |
| Size/Form: | Swamp chestnut oak is a large, deciduous tree that averages 60' to 80' in height with a 2' to 3' diameter. In rare cases it may grow as tall as 120' with a 7' diameter. In open areas, the crown is low and widely spreading, but the tree has a more compact form when grown within a forest. |
| Bark: | The thick, light gray bark is irregularly furrowed with long, narrow scales and shaggy rectangular plates. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, 4" to 9" long, and 2 ½" to 5" wide. They are obovate, broadest in the middle and above. The leaf base tapers to the petiole and the leaf tip is rounded. The upper leaf surface is lustrous, dark green and smooth while the underside is duller and fuzzy. Leaf margins are coarsely wavy-toothed. Leaves turn crimson in the fall. |
| Fruit: | The ovoid acorns are 1" to 1 ½" long and light to dull brown in color. The bowl-like cap covers 1/3 to ½ of the acorn and has distinct, wedge-shaped, triangular scales. Acorns mature in one season and may grow singularly or in clusters of two or three. |