Seven Red Oak Leaves

Oak trees of the same species produce leaves that differ remarkably from one another. In my limited experience, White Oaks attain to the widest variation, but there is also noticeable variety among Pin Oak and Red Oak leaves.

A and B represent the characteristic shape that Red Oak leaves take on. The leaf blade comprises a usually wide base and an elongated midsection. The base has two pointed lobes, which spread outward. Sometimes the lower lobes are rather stumpy, as in A. Sometimes, as in B, the lobes arc gracefully. The midsection can be short or, as in B, quite long. It can also become elaborated, as in C, with multiple, pointed projections. Some leaves have two sets of lower lobes, as in D and E. But E differs greatly from D with regard to the curvature of its lobes. Did these lobes reach out from underneath a covering branch for greater sunlight? Oddly, in E the second lobe on the right curves downward, or inward with respect to the tree trunk. In F the midsection curves even more than in E, as does the right lobes that corresponds to the downward directed lobe in E. . The twisting G is almost deformed. It would be hard to recognize G as a Red Oak leaf.