Although widespread across eastern states, this species is uncommon to absent on fertile base-rich soils. In Ky. there appear to be occasional hybrids (or perhaps introgressants) with several other species, including imbricaria, marilandica, rubra and shumardii, but there is no reported intergradation with coccinea. Compared to rubra, shumardii and coccinea, distinctive characters of velutina include its yellow to orange inner bark (also young twigs and petioles); well-developed terminal buds unusually large (6-12 mm versus 3-7 mm), uniformly tawny-gray tomentose and distinctly 4- or 5-angled (often more sharply than in coccinea); acorn cups pubescent on inner surface (versus largely smooth) and with looser scale-tips (FNA 3, J, W). With leaves alone, velutina is often difficult to distinguish from coccinea. Leaves of velutina are highly variable in shape, especially from shade (with shallow lobing) to sun (with deep lobing). Compared to coccinea, leaves are loosely tomentose with relatively large stellate hairs at first (versus largely glaborus), but these distinctive ("scuzzy") hairs tend to fall off during the summer except in axils. Also, blades tend to be larger (mostly 10-30 cm long versus 7-16 cm), with darker green upper surfaces, the lobes less flared-out, even in sun, and much shallower in shade leaves. Fallen leaves tend to be blackish (versus reddish); also, twigs and acorns tend to be less reddish. The state champion is reported from BOYD (KDF 2020), with dbh 188 cm, height, 33 m, and width (perhaps questionable) 63 m.