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How to Know the Trees in Winter: November: Chestnut-Oak

The Chestnut-Oak, also known as the Rock Chestnut-Oak because it is most abundant in the rocky soil of mountains, although found in lowlands also, is one of those Oaks whose trunks divide into large limbs not far from the ground. There is another Chestnut-Oak, also known as the Chinquapin and the Yellow Oak, because of its yellowish-green leaves; and still another, the Dwarf Chinquapin or Scrub-Chestnut, but the last named is only a shrub growing in clumps in dry, sandy, or rocky soil. The other Chinquapin varies from 30 to 160 feet high, with a small, narrow, round-topped head. The Red Oak, one of the most widely known of all the Oaks, has a head similar to that of the Yellow Oak and grows to about the same height. It gets its name from its dark, gray-brown bark, tinged with red. The Black Oak also is named from its bark. It grows from 70 to 150 feet with slender branches and narrow, open head. The Pin-Oak is also known as the Swamp-Oak, because it is found most abundantly on the borders of swamps and in river-bottoms. It gets the "pin" in its name from little pin-like twigs which, in turn, are themselves thickly set with pin-like "twiglets."