Reaching a height of 75 feet or more with a 25-foot spread, Silver Oak is pyramidal to oval in shape, eventually developing a few heavy horizontal limbs and a thick trunk. It is a fast growing evergreen tree, between 18-35 m tall with dark green delicately dented bipinnatifid leaves reminiscent of a fern frond. These leaves are generally 15-30 cm long with silvery undersides. Its flowers are golden-orange bottlebrush-like blooms, between 8-15 cm long, in the spring, on a 2-3 cm long stem. A great quantity of leaves fall in the spring immediately preceding the emergence of new growth and leaves also fall sporadically throughout the year, creating quite a litter problem to some people. Black, leathery seed capsules follow the flowers. This tree is growing around my lab in CSRTI, Mysore. While inspecting the refrigeration unit on top of the building floor, this tree branch with this flower was extending over to me and i took the photo on 7th March 2012.
