Click on the images help you identify a chinkapin oak.
Form
Height can reach 80 to 100 feet with a trunk diameter of 36 inches. The average size of chinkapin oaks in Minnesota is often smaller. Open-grown trees have short trunks with many branches that form a wide, well-rounded crown. Forest-grown trees are tall with narrow crowns.
Bark
Young bark is thin, light gray. Bark on old trunks is broken on the surface into thin, loose, silvery white flakes.
Leaf
Simple, alternate on stem, 4 to 7 inches long; crowded at the ends of the branches. Leaves taper gradually toward the tip and have coarsely pointed teeth. Upper surface is smooth and yellow green; lower surface is pale and downy. Leaves turn red or brownish orange in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Stemless or short-stemmed acorn, usually less than 3/4 inch long; occurs singly or in pairs; enclosed for one-half or less of its length in a rather shallow bowl-shaped cup.
Range
Native to Houston County in far southeastern Minnesota.
Wood uses
Close-grained, heavy, hard, strong. Not commercially valuable but is sometimes used for railroad ties, construction timbers, and bridge planking.