Quercus montana

The chestnut oak or rock oak is in the white oak group (Quercus), in the beech or Fagaceae family, and is native to the eastern United States, from southern Maine to Mississippi, with an outlying population in Michigan. In its dry habitat, it does not grow that large, reaching 18–22 m in height.

• Leaves are deciduous, alternate, simple, 12–20 cm long and 6–10 cm broad, shallowly lobed with 10–15 rounded lobes on each margin; leaves are shiny green above and paler below. In autumn they turn a dull yellow, then yellow-brown.
• Species is monoecious; male flowers are yellow-green catkins 5-10 cm long; female flowers are reddish and appear as single spikes, appearing with the leaves in mid-spring.
• Acorns are ovoid, 2.5–3.7 cm long; cap is thin, warty and shaped like a teacup, edges very thin; they mature in one growing season.
• Bark is gray-brown to brown, very smooth when young, developing hard and wide flat-topped ridges which later become thicker and more sharply pointed ridges.