Quercus arizonica |
Quercus agrifolia |
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Arizona oak, Arizona white oak |
California live oak, coast live oak, encina |
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Habit | Trees, evergreen or subevergreen, small to moderate-sized trees, rarely to 18 m. Bark scaly. | Trees, evergreen, to 25 m. Bark gray to dark brown or black, ridges broad, rounded. |
Twigs | yellowish, 1.5-2.5 mm diam., persistently felty-tomentose, eventually dingy gray. |
brown to red-brown, 1.5-3 mm diam., with scattered pubescence or uniformly pubescent. |
Buds | dull russet-brown, ovoid, distally subacute or rounded, 3 mm, sparsely pubescent or glabrate. |
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Leaves | blade elliptic or oblong to narrowly obovate or oblanceolate, planar or moderately convex, to (30-)40-80(-90) × 15-30 mm, thick and leathery, usually stiff, base cordate or rounded and weakly cordate, margins entire or coarsely toothed especially near apex, cartilaginously revolute, teeth mucronate-tipped, obscure or prominent, secondary veins ca. 7-11 on each side, branching, passing into teeth when present, apex acute to usually obtuse or broadly rounded; surfaces abaxially dull, sparsely pubescent or subtomentose with curly branched hairs, reticulate from prominent, raised secondary veins, usually glaucous where exposed, adaxially dark or bluish green, moderately lustrous, sparsely and minutely stellate-pubescent, secondary veins slightly raised or prominent within depressions or impressed. |
blade broadly elliptic to ovate or oblong, 15-75 × 10-40 mm, base rounded or cordate, margins entire or spinose, with up to 24 awns, apex blunt to attenuate; surfaces abaxially glabrous or with small axillary tufts of tomentum, veins raised, adaxially distinctly convex, rugose, glabrous, occasionally densely uniformly pubescent. |
Acorns | solitary or paired, subsessile, occasionally on peduncle to 15 mm; cup hemispheric or cup-shaped, 5-10(-15) mm deep × 10-15 mm wide, enclosing ca. 1/2 nut, base rounded, margin rather coarse, scales cream to brown, broadly ovate, evenly and strongly tuberculate, tomentose, tips closely appressed; nut light brown, ovoid or oblong, 8-12 mm, nearly glabrous. |
annual; cup turbinate to cup- or bowl-shaped, rarely saucer-shaped, 9-13 mm high × 9-15 mm wide, covering 1/4-1/3(-1/2) nut, outer surface glabrous to sparsely puberulent, inner surface pubescent on innermost 1/3 to uniformly pubescent, scales acute, tips loose; nut ovoid to oblong or conic, 15-35 × 10-15 mm, glabrous, scar diam. 3.5-8 mm. |
Cotyledons | connate. |
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Terminal | buds light chestnut brown, ovoid, occasionally subconic, 3-6(-7) mm, glabrous except for cilia along scale margins. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Quercus arizonica |
Quercus agrifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering early to mid spring. |
Habitat | Oak and pinyon woodlands, margins of chaparral, arroyos | Moderately dry sites |
Elevation | 1300-2500(-3000) m (4300-8200(-9800) ft) | 0–1400 m (0–4600 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, and Sonora)
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CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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Discussion | Some of the specimens previously referred to Quercus endemica by C. H. Muller belong here instead. Putative hybrids between Quercus arizonica and Q. grisea (= Q. ×organensis Trelease) are problematic in local areas of contact from southeastern Arizona to western Texas. These intermediates tend to have narrower leaves than Q. arizonica, with moderately reticulate patterns of venation, and more densely hairy leaves. Quercus arizonica and Q. grisea are amply distinct elsewhere, including large areas in northern Mexico, and they appear to be more closely related to other species than to one another (e.g., Q. arizonica with Q. oblongifolia and Q. laeta Liebmann, and Q. grisea with Q. mohriana and Q. microphylla Née). Thus, Q. arizonica and Q. grisea are best treated as distinct species that hybridize, and not as conspecific populations. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Quercus agrifolia is found in the Coast Ranges from Sonoma County, California, south to Baja California. Plants with densely pubescent leaves, especially abaxially, have been treated as Q. agrifolia var. oxyadenia. This species reportedly hybridizes with Quercus kelloggii and Q. wislizenii. The Mahuna used Quercus agrifolia medicinally to heal the bleeding navel of a newborn (D. E. Moerman 1986). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Lobatae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. sacame | Q. acroglandis, Q. agrifolia var. oxyadenia, Q. pricei |
Name authority | Sargent: Gard. & Forest 8: 92. (1895) | Nee.: Anales Ci. Nat. 3: 271. (1801) |
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