Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Turkey oak is a small tree that reaches 20 to 30 feet in height, rarely up to 60 feet, with a 2-foot diameter. It is characterized as having a broad open crown. It is often shrubby on the poorest sites. |
| Leaves: | Leaves are simple, alternate, and deciduous. The leaves, with 3 to 7 narrow lobes and deep sinuses, resemble a turkey foot. Each leaf, 3 to 12 inches long, possesses a small point at the tip. They are 3 to 12 inches long, 1 to 8 inches wide, oval or triangular in shape, are 3-7 lobed, and have sharply pointed tips. The terminal lobes are irregular and the apex is 3 toothed. Leaf bases are wedge-shaped. Leaves are lustrous yellow-green above, paler below, sometimes with rusty-red pubescence along the veins. Leaf petioles are short, stout, and grooved. |
| Twigs: | The twigs are stout and red, becoming dark brown and glabrous with age. The pith is star-shaped and homogeneous. |
| Bark: | The younger trees possess a dark to blackish bark that becomes thick, rough, and deeply furrowed into irregular ridges as the tree matures. The inner bark is red in color. |
| Flowers: | The flowers are monoecious and bloom in November. |
| Fruit: | Fruit is an acorn, usually grown solitary. The nut is ovoid, up to 1 inch long, brown, and woolly at the tip. |
| Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List: There are three other trees on our list that have simple, alternate, pinnately-lobed leaves. |
|