Shingle Oak got its name in that settlers used to like its wood for making shingles. The native range of Shingle Oak is from a little bit of Maryland and West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, all through Ohio & Indiana, southwest Michigan, most of Illinois & Missouri & Kentucky, western Tennessee, northern Arkansas, and a little of east Kansas and southern Iowa, growing in bottomlands and in uplands. It grows about 1 foot/year and lives about 200 to 250 years. Its beautiful shiny, leathery leaves are simple with no lobes, getting to 6 inches long and 3 inches wide. They get a good orange fall color and usually remain on the tree brown for most of the winter, like the similar Pin Oak. It bears small acorns to about 5/8 inches long that, like other members of the Black Oak subgroup, mature every two years. Even though it develops a taproot, it is still not difficult to transplant. I see it infrequently planted in some kind of park, school campus, or office park, and every once in awhile in a yard. Some larger, diverse nurseries and some native plant nurseries sell some, and they are mostly used by landscape architects or designers that know about this handsome tree. It should be planted more. I've never seen it in the wild.

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