Turkey oak

Quercus catesbaei Michaux

Trees or shrubs , deciduous, to 20 m. Bark bluish gray, deeply furrowed, inner bark orangish or reddish. Twigs dark reddish brown with distinct grayish cast, (1.5-)2-3.5(-4) mm diam., sparsely pubescent to almost glabrous. Terminal buds light brown to reddish brown, conic or narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, 5.5-12 mm, pubescent. Leaves: petiole 5-25 mm, glabrous. Leaf blade circular or broadly ovate-elliptic, widest near or proximal to middle, 100-200 × 80-150 mm, base attenuate to acute, occasionally obtuse or rounded, blade decurrent on petiole, margins with 3-7(-9) lobes and 7-20 awns, lobes attenuate to falcate, occasionally oblong or distally expanded, apex acute to acuminate; surfaces abaxially occasionally orange-scurfy, usually glabrous except for conspicuous axillary tufts of tomentum, adaxially glabrous, secondary veins raised on both surfaces. Acorns biennial; cup somewhat goblet-shaped, 9-14 mm high × 16-24 mm wide, covering 1/3 nut, outer surface puberulent, inner surface pubescent, scales occasionally tuberculate, tips loose, especially at margin of cup, acute, margin conspicuously involute; nut ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 17-28 × 12-18 mm, often faintly striate, glabrate, scar diam. 6-10 mm.

Flowering early to mid spring. Dry sandy soils of barrens, sandhills, and well-drained ridges; 0-150 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.

Quercus laevis reportedly hybridizes with Q . falcata (= Q . × blufftonensis Trelease), Q . hemisphaerica , Q . incana , and Q . marilandica (C. S. Sargent 1918); with Q . nigra ; and with Q . arkansana , Q . coccinea , Q . myrtifolia , Q . phellos , Q . shumardii , and Q . velutina (D. M. Hunt 1989).