I spent about six months in “the Piedmont” of South Carolina, doing stand exams. Most units were plantations, reforested from the old cotton fields. Some of the units were bottomland areas, with lots of interesting biodiversity. I discovered 41 different hardwoods species, with 20 of them being oaks. I did pretty well identifying the trees, despite having taken Dendrology 25 years beforehand. This oak was really unusual. with a branch being longer than the tree was tall. I paced the 55 foot distance of this limb that grew its way to the road opening.
I’m amazed you could tell those oak species apart, especially being a westerner. They also hybridize and I always used to say “if they can’t tell each other apart, why should I be able to?” This was not popular with my dendro teacher.