Chinquapin Oak / Chinkapin Oak - Quercus muhlenbergii

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Chinquapin Oak / Chinkapin Oak - Quercus muhlenbergii
Chinkapin oak is sometimes called yellow chestnut oak, rock oak, or yellow oak. Its heavy wood makes excellent fuel.
Height: 40-50' Spread: 40-50' Habit/Form: Rounded Growth Rate: Slow Zone: 5-7

Chinquapin oak is easily grown in rich, loamy, well-drained soils in full sun. It's one of the few oaks that tolerates alkaline soil and urban pollution, although young trees may be difficult to transplant and establish.

Ornamental Characteristics: Long, toothed leaves have a beautiful wavy margin and a whitish underside; showy, yellow fall color; branches grow mostly upright or horizontal and will not droop; bark is a bold, scaly gray. Acorns are one-half inches in length with a scaly cap. It may take 20 years to bear the first crop. Landscape uses: Shade tree, street and parking islands, large landscapes.

Chinkapin oak is sometimes called yellow chestnut oak, rock oak, or yellow oak. Its heavy wood makes excellent fuel. The acorns are sweet and are eaten by several kinds of animals and birds. Chinkapin oak is rarely a predominant tree, but it grows in association with many other species, including white oak (Quercus alba), black oak (Q. uelutina), northern red oak (Q. rubra), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (A. rubrum), hickories (Carya spp.), black cherry (Prunus serotina), cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata), white ash (Fraxinus americana), American basswood (Tilia americana), black walnut (Juglans nigra), butternut (J. cinerea), and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera).

American beech (Fagus grandifolia), shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), pitch pine (P. rigida), Virginia pine (P. uirginiana), Ozark chinkapin (Castanea ozarkensis), eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), bluejack oak (Quercus incana), southern red oak (Q. falcata), blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica), and winged elm (Ulmus alata) also grow in association with chinkapin oak.
Here is an interesting excerpt from a scientific paper regarding the decomposition rate of different tree leaves in an aquifer:

Abstract
Dry Chinquapin oak (Quercus macrocarpa) and American elm (Ulmus americana) leaves were placed in four microcosms fed by groundwater springs to monitor changes in dry mass, ash-free dry mass, and microbial activity over a 35-day period. Oxygen microelectrodes were used to measure microbial activity and to estimate millimeter-scale heterogeneity in that activity. Oak leaves lost mass more slowly than elm leaves. Generally, there was a decrease in total dry weight over the first 14 days, after which total dry weight began to increase. However, there were consistent decreases in ash-free dry mass over the entire incubation period, suggesting that the material remaining after initial leaf decomposition trapped inorganic particles. Microbial activity was higher on elm leaves than on oak leaves, with peak activity occurring at 6 and 27 days, respectively. The level of oxygen saturation on the bottom surface of an elm leaf ranged between 0 and 75% within a 30-mm2 area. This spatial heterogeneity in O2 saturation disappeared when the water velocity increased from 0 to 6 cm s-1. Our results suggest that as leaves enter the groundwater, they decompose and provide substrate for microorganisms. The rate of decomposition depends on leaf type, small-scale variations in microbial activity, water velocity, and the length of submersion time. During the initial stages of decomposition, anoxic microzones are formed that could potentially be important to the biogeochemistry of the otherwise oxic aquifer. (4)

[Chinkapin Oak Bark]
Chinkapin Oak Bark

[Image: Acorn Weevil]
Acorn Weevil, Curculio sp.

Defoliating insects that attack chinkapin oak are the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), the orangestriped oakworm (Anisota senatoria), and the variable oakleaf caterpillar (Heterocampa manteo). Insects that bore into the bole include the carpenterworm. (Prionoyxstus robiniae), little carpenterworm (P. macmurtrei), white oak borer (Goes tigrinus), Columbian timber beetle (Corthylus columbianus), oak timberworm (Arrhenodes minutus), and twolined chestnut borer (Agrilus bilineatus). The acorn weevils (Curculio spp.), larvae of moths (Valentinia glandulella and Melissopus latiferreanus), and gallforming cynipids (Callirhytis spp.) attack and destroy the acorns.

Acorn weevils have snouts with small, saw-like teeth at the very end. There are two types, or genera: the long-snouted acorn weevils (genus Curculio) and the short-snouted ones (genus Conotrachelus). The longsnouted acorn weevil's snout may be equal to or greater than the length of its body. The specimen pictured above is the long-snouted variety.

Adults of both genera feed on acorns, but only the long snouted weevils can drill into the shells to feed and lay eggs inside the nutmeat. The tip of the snouth is actually a miniature saw, and the weevil places the tip against the shell, circling endlessly around the pivot point until the shell is pierced. Females place eggs inside the nut using a long ovipositor that descends from the abdomen.

Grub-like acorn weevil larvae hatch from eggs a few days after they are laid. There may be one to several acorn weevil larvae in each acorn. Larvae typically go through five growth stages, or instars. Each instar ends with the molt or shedding of the old skin, providing the larva with more room to grow. After a few weeks, larvae chew their way out of the acorn, burrow into the soil to pupate, and eventually emerge as adults the next year. Short-snouted larvae usually exit from a single hole that already exists in the acorn, but long-snouted larvae may chew their own exit hole through the acorn shell. Like larvae of the short-snouted acorn weevil, acorn moth larvae can feed only on damaged or sprouting acorns. The grayish female acorn moths lay eggs in damaged acorns, sometimes in the emergence holes of acorn weevil larvae. It's easy to distinguish the acorn moth larva, a caterpillar, from acorn weevil larvae. The acorn moth larva has three pairs of legs near the head and is generally longer than the legless, fat larvae of acorn weevils. Larvae of the acorn moth feed on acorns and probably on the fungi that often grow in damaged acorns. They usually pupate inside the acorns.

References
1. Microbial Decomposition of Elm and Oak Leaves in a Karst Aquifer † Angela C. Eichem, Wtitleer K. Dodds,* Cathy M. Tate,‡ and Chris Edler
Division of Biology, Kansas State University

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