Fagaceae -- Beech family

    Ivan L. Sander

    Black oak (Quercus velutina) is a common, medium-sized to  large oak of the eastern and midwestern United States. It is  sometimes called yellow oak, quercitron, yellowbark oak, or  smoothbark oak. It grows best on moist, rich, well-drained soils,  but it is often found on poor, dry sandy or heavy glacial clay  hillsides where it seldom lives more than 200 years. Good crops  of acorns provide wildlife with food. The wood, commercially  valuable for furniture and flooring, is sold as red oak. Black  oak is seldom used for landscaping.