Also called yellow chestnut oak and rock oak.  One of the ◼︎ white oaks.

Despite their similar common names, do not confuse with sister-species chestnut oak  Quercus montana, nor cousin-species (from a sister-genus within the same family) Allegheny chinquapin  Castanea pumila.

Part of oak  genus Quercus in beech / oak  family Fagaceae in bayberry / beech / birch / oak / walnut  order Fagales.

Native to 🇺🇸 USA central, South and East, and into 🇨🇦 Canada and 🇲🇽 México.   🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48), 🗺 map (North America, Central America),  Adobe Acrobat Reader file 🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).

Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
  ♧🌰︎☠︎ Leaves and acorns toxic[?] to humans, although many cultures process acorns to remove their tannins, making acorns an important staple food.

Quercus hosts caterpillars of 534 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
  This plant is also known to be a host for (in areas where invasive) 🐝︎ spotted lanternfly (SLF)  Lycorma delicatula.

If your oak is growing a few meters (yards) from a potential parent tree, its 🌰︎ acorn probably fell there, or was cached and forgotten by a squirrel  family Sciuridae.

If your oak is growing a kilometer (mile) away from a potential parent tree, its 🌰︎ acorn probably was cached and forgotten by a 🐦︎ jay  family Corvidae, with whom it coevolved.

    — That and lots more interesting information in interview "Our Most Essential Trees: The Nature of Oaks, with Doug Tallamy"  The joe gardener Show.  or its 🔊︎ audio

Planting info (SW Michigan).  Adobe Acrobat Reader file

Learn more about chinquapin (chinkapin) oak Quercus muehlenbergii

🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Michigan Flora (Michigan) MSU Ext (Minnesota) Wildflower Garden Missouri Botanical Garden North Carolina Ext Flora of North America USDA PLANTS db USFS USFS Silvics Wikipedia