When this tree is planted in open spaces, the lower branches are often low and spreading, and the trunk low-branching and strongly tapered with a swollen base. The leaves are alternate, deciduous and 4 to 7 inches long. Margins are coarsely serrated, teeth often slightly incurved, and the leaf texture is leathery. Leaves are a lustrous yellow-green above, and paler and finely hairy below.
Autumn colors vary from yellow to orange-brown, and occasionally a deep wine color.
Male and female flowers are produced in separate catkins, appearing in May and June on the current year's growth. The sweet, edible acorns are solitary or produced in pairs, ripening in one year and falling from the tree in September and October. The thin bark is ashy gray, and broken into shallow, rough furrows or narrow, flaky scales. This species is native in Iowa south and east of a line from the Loess Hills in Mills County northeastward to Winneshiek County. Native to North America from Ontario west to Minnesota and Nebraska, south to Delaware, Texas and western Florida, the chinkapin oak is not, however, common anywhere in its natural range.