Plantsnap – Identify Plants, Trees, Mushrooms With An App

Swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii)

Description

“Pet poisonous” – Toxic parts: shoots, leaves Quercus michauxii, the swamp chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus section Quercus in the beech family. It is native to bottomlands and wetlands in the southeastern and midwestern United States, in coastal states from New Jersey to Texas, inland primarily in the Mississippi–Ohio Valley as far as Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The swamp chestnut oak closely resembles the chestnut oak (Quercus prinus), and for that reason has sometimes been treated as a variety of that species. However, the swamp chestnut oak is a larger tree which differs in preferred habitat, and the bark does not have the distinctive deep, rugged ridging of the chestnut oak, being thinner, scaly, and paler gray. It typically grows to around 65 feet (20 meters) tall, though the tallest specimen currently known is over 150 feet (42 meters) tall.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum: Magnoliophyta

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Fagales

            • Family: Fagaceae

              • Genus: Quercus