Big Black Oak

Quercus velutina

This summer, a tree fell in the yard of a country church in our neighborhood. Since all the church members are elderly, my husband volunteered to clean it up if we could have the firewood. We've gone over there several mornings recently to work on it.

Right away, I noticed a big oak tree growing in the border of trees and brush behind the church. And since I am a little obsessed with identifying trees, I wanted to know what sort of oak it is.

I confess that I usually don't approach tree identification in a logical manner (that is, with a tree identification key.) I pluck a leaf, get out the field guides, and try to match a photo to the leaf in my hand.

With this oak, I couldn't possibly reach high enough to pick a leaf. The best I could do was zoom in on the foliage with my camera.

Based on the the bark of the tree and the best leaf images from my zoomed-in photo, I think this is a black oak (Quercus velutina Lam.)

The leaves in my photo don't look much like the black oak leaves in some of my books. The books show a leaf that has deeply cut sinuses between the lobes, rather like a pin oak. However, the leaves in my photo look very similar to the black oak leaf in Trees & Shrubs of Kentucky (see info about this book at the bottom of this column.)

The Virginia Department of Forestry page about black oaks contains the following explanation about the leaves: "... sun leaves have deep sinuses between lobes, and shade leaves have very shallow sinuses..."

The bark on this tree is dark in color and deeply furrowed as black oak bark is said to be. I could -- but won't -- chip off a piece of bark and see if the inner bark is orange or yellow. That's a distinguishing characteristic for black oaks. The yellow inner bark was once used for dye. I suppose that's why a second common name for the tree is "yellow oak."

After giving this tree a couple of "hugs", I estimate that its trunk is over ten feet in circumference. I am not good at estimating height, so I'll just say that it's a tall tree.

This property has been occupied by a Methodist Church since 1870. The word "Grove" is part of the church's name. It's pleasant to imagine that this tree may be a surviving member of the grove that was here when the church was organized and named.