Popular and long-lived shade tree, which grows to 100 feet (30.5 m), with a wide spreading rounded crown and with numerous horizontal branches. Bark light gray, shallow furrows forming scaly ridges or plates. Twigs slender to stout, gray to reddish-green twigs with star-shaped pith; buds are reddish-brown and broadly oval and hairless. Leaves petiole 3?8 - 1 inch (10 - 25 mm) in length; obovate to elliptical leaves, 4 - 8 inches (101 - 203 mm) long, 2 3/4 - 4 3/4 inches (70 - 121 mm) wide, margin with 5 - 9 lobes that are widest beyond middle, deep sinuses extending a third or more to midrib; base acute to cuneate, apex broadly rounded; dull or shiny grayish green above, light green with slight pubescence which becomes smooth beneath as they mature.

The classic eastern oak, with wide spreading branches and a rounded crown, the trunk irregularly divided into spreading, often horizontal, stout branches. Northern white oak is an imposing, deciduous tree, 80-100 ft. tall, with a straight trunk and a wide (when open-grown) crown. Large, coarse, horizontal limbs are picturesque. Catkins appear just before or with the appearance of new leaves. The round-lobed leaves turn burgundy in fall. Dried leaves remain into winter.