The Jack Oak is a member of the red oak group. The tree is tall (70 feet) with a bole diameter over two feet. The trunk is dark and broken into fine grooves. Leaves are three to six inches long. They are deeply lobed and shiny on top and hairless underneath. The acorns are less than an inch long and have bowl shaped caps with fine hairs. Twigs are hairless and have small, pointy hairless buds which are reddish in color.

The growing region is only Minnesota to Ohio. Oak is a hardwood providing a major portion of the annual lumber in the United States. Oak trees are generally slow-growing and long-lived and tend to be relatively resistant to diseases and insects. Tannin is a major produce from oak bark.