azik 的最愛

This tree has mostly characteristics of northern red oak, except the bark is smooth from bottom to top. These 'smooth bark' oaks are fairly common along the O'Neille bike path near Asa Pond. And there are many typical-looking northern red oaks in the Tri-Pond area. I suspect that these 'smooth-bark' oaks are an intermediate (possibly a hybrid northern red x scarlet) or are showing an adaptation to certain soil and light conditions.