Swamp White Oak

Description:

"This tree is typically 60-80' tall at maturity, developing a straight trunk about 2-3½' across and an ovoid to obovoid crown. In open sunny areas, the trunk is shorter and the crown is more broad, while in forested areas the trunk is longer and the crown is more narrow. Depending on the maturity of a tree, trunk bark is brown, gray-brown, or gray, rough-textured, and developing either irregular furrows with flat ridges or large flaky scales. Branch bark is similar to trunk bark, but more smooth, while the smooth twigs are brown or gray, smooth, and covered with scattered white lenticels...Alternate leaves about 4-7" long and 2½-4½" across occur along the twigs and young shoots. They are usually obovate (less often broadly elliptic) with 4-8 pairs of lobes along their margins. These lobes are shallow to moderately deep and they are either rounded or taper to blunt tips. The sinuses between the lobes are concave or bluntly cleft. The upper leaf surface is medium to dark green and glabrous, while the lower surface is whitish green to white and densely covered with short white hairs that are stellate and fine-textured." From: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/tree...

Habitat:

Along the east bank of the Fox River in South Elgin, IL.

Notes:

A bit of a tale regarding this. I was kayaking north on the Fox River on 6/23/13 when I heard a tremendous crack and rustling on the east bank, just downstream from the new Stearns Rd. bridge. A large upper branch, approx. 10" in diameter snapped near the trunk plummeting a well foliaged mass with sound and fury into the river. Glad I wasn't ghosting along that bank at the time. At first I thought it was felled, but the break was obvious and no one was in sight.