BUR OAK; MOSSY Cur OAK (Quercus nurcrocarpa, Michx.) 75 to 160 feet. Irregularly round-headed, ruggedly pictur esque, unsymmetrical tree. Bark gray-brown, deeply fissured, shaggy; branches ridged, shedding plates of bark; twigs stout, pubescent, and winged with corky ridges. Wood brown, close grained, heavy, durable, with conspicuous pith rays, used as the highest grade of white oak in the lumber trade. Leaves 6 to 12 inches long, obovate, 5 to 7-lobed, two wide sinuses opposite, below the middle, cutting the leaf almost in two.
Upper surface lustrous, dark green; lining silvery pubescent. Flowers: staminate in profuse, clustered catkins, with opening leaves; pistillate in greenish, few-flowered clusters, red-tipped. Acorns annual, i to 2 inches long, fuzzy, in deep, brown, hairy cup, covered with loose, shaggy scales, fringed around the top. Kernel white, sweet. Dist.: Nova Scotia to Mon tana; south to Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. Thrives in many soils and climates. Fine park oak.