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Cook County Forest Preserves Sweet and Jurgensen Woods near Thornton, Illinois. Sandy acid loam oak woodlands with common associates of Quercus alba, Quercus velutina, Quercus palustris, Sassafras albidum and Nyssa sylvatica. Range maps of Quercus coccinea in both Eastern US and Illinois. Illinois map from Forest Trees of Illinois (Hayek, 2009)
Pictures of mature buds, leaves and acorn. from Sweet Woods and acorn with rings from nearby Cook County Jurgensen Woods. Acorns collected from Pennsylvania Allegheny Forest, Pelham and Montague Massachusetts via Harvard Forest Research Station. Massachusetts /Pennsylvania trees are Quercus coccinea.

Population of the northern savannah expression of Quercus coccinea growing on acid sandy loam with aspen, white birch (a few Bur Oak) in a tall grass prairie ecosystem in Minnesota.
Included is a Discriminant Functions Statistical Analysis centroid graph of 25 populations of Northern Pin and Scarlet Oak across eastern US including Minnesota . Morphology of buds, twigs, leaves, and acorns were examined. Morphological distance was noted with Black ((velutina) and Pin Oak (palustris). Quercus ellipsoidalis and Quercus coccinea group as one species not two.

Diagnostic characters of Quercus coccinea seen in this tree and population include:

• 5mm Pubescent tipped buds

• 20+mm acorn cupules with glossy orange acuminate bract scales
  *Gray outer bark with. reddish inner bark

• Glossy Scarlet leaves with C-shaped sinuses
• Concentric pitting and rings are found in this population but most typical of southern Quercus coccinea populations but are frequently lacking in trees growing in the northern parts of its range.

Opuntia cesptiosa specimen collected from eastern Ontario, Canada.

In preparation for preservation and herbarium submission.

Noted:

• Vascular connective tisses; interweaving between each adjacent corresponding areole.

HOHOHO this... is a beautiful thing. Several individuals in grow tubes back here. My theory is: these plants are volunteers that some well-meaning, but not botanically inclined, soul put tubes on after a NWTF tree planting had mostly died off, in attempt to save whatever trees/shrubs were left. I also found a couple tubed Frangula alnus nearby, oops.
There are other remnant bedfellows around the sumac, like Spiraea tomentosa and Lycopus americanus, all growing together incongruously in the middle of the field. Apparently poison sumac fruit is a good winter food source for wildlife, so it is still serving the purpose of the original planting 😁

Alternate simple leaves about an inch long, lance-shaped. Leaf stems flattened on top. Light vein-like pattern on top of leaf, smooth dark green on bottom. May use rhisomes. Growing amid moss at foot of sugar maple.