WATER OAK (Quercus nigra, Linn.). 30 to SO feet. Sym metrical, round-topped tree, with slender, smooth branches and bark. Wood brown, heavy, used for fuel. Leaves wedge-shaped, thin, dull bluish-green above, pale beneath, with axillary tufts of rusty hairs; apex broadening into 3 lobes, with wavy margins, often almost en tire; on upper part of the tree leaves are often narrow and deeply cleft as a red-oak leaf, but small; length e to 5 inches.
Acorns small, squat, striate, light yellow-brown, enclosed only at base by a thin, saucer-like cup of red-brown scales. Dist.: Swamps and stream borders, Delaware to Florida; west to the Appalachian Mountains; Gulf States to Texas; Mis sissippi Valley from Gulf to Missouri and Kentucky. Favorite shade tree in South.