Also known as the yellow oak.
Family: Fagaceae [beech], part of the fagoid group [with birches].
Form: large, long-lived tree with small nuts (acorns); develops open canopy with huge, widely spreading, knarly limbs.
Range: east-central USA (+ Ontario), mostly on calcareous uplands around central/lower Mississippi and Ohio River drainages; scattered across Kentucky but most common in the Bluegrass, little in east.
Habitat: woods on moist to dry base-rich soil, especially rocky limestone slopes; regenerating in thin woods or edges, rarely fields.
Consumers: acorns sought by birds, small mammals, weevils; plants sometimes browsed, and may be sensitive; various pests and diseases can damage; old trees often hollow and root-rotted.
Growing notes: acorns germinate rapidly in fall; seedlings rather slow-growing, sensitive to transplanting, other stresses; saplings fast.
