Shingle oaks are found throughout the state of Missouri in a variety of habitats, including dry woods, slopes and prairie and stream edges. In the spring they produce small catkins and in the fall, acorns with scaly caps and yellow-brown and red-brown leaves which persist through the winter.

Shingle oaks do best in full sun and well-drained soil and are generally a low maintenance tree. Early settlers sometimes harvested the wood for shingles, a fact that gives this tree its common name.