Black Oak Tree
The black oak is a medium to large sized tree that branches out widely and has a very open spreading top to it. It can range in height from fifty to over eighty feet tall and have a trunk that has a circumference of as much as three feet around.
The oak leaves are very distinct., ranging from between four and seven inches long, and 3 to 6inches wide. They are shallow and narrow, ending in some bristley teeth type endings, rounded with about 7 lobes but there may be as many as nine.
The Oak leaf is shiny green colored on top and will usually be yellowish green and have small brown hairs on the underside ofit.
They inhabit primarily dry areas of sandy or rocky soil, but may also live in the clay slopes on the side of a hill.
The oak ranges from southern Ontario Canada to Maine,south to Florida and west into Texas, Nebraska and north into Minnesota.
The bark is easy to recognize as oak by the presence of a deep yellowish orange inner bark that shreds well.
It is tastes and even smells very bitter. The outerbark is gray to deep gray in color, turns black and thick, as it grows older, and is deeply furrowed and ridged as it gets older.
The acorns are poisonous to animals and although probably not deady to humans it is suggested that they not be used as a food source.
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