Quercus georgiana is a small tree, often shrubby in the wild, growing to 8–15 meters (26–49 feet) tall.

The shiny green leaves are 4–13 centimeters (1+1⁄2–5 inches) long and 2–9 cm (1–3+1⁄2 in) wide, with a 0.6–2.3 cm (1⁄4–1 in) petiole, and five irregular, pointed, bristle-tipped lobes; they are glabrous (hairless), except for small but conspicuous tufts of hairs in the vein axils on the underside.

Like all oaks, flowering and leaf-out occur in late spring when all frost danger has passed.

Terminal buds are red-brown, ovoid to subconic, 2.5–5 mm, and glabrous or with scales somewhat ciliate.

[4] It grows on dry granite and sandstone outcrops of slopes of hills at 50–500 m (160–1,640 ft) altitude.