Quercus coccinea |
Quercus depressipes |
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scarlet oak |
Davis Mountain oak, depressed oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 30 m; lower trunk without stubs of dead branches. | Shrubs, evergreen or subevergreen, low, to 1 m, often forming dense thickets, rhizomatous. |
Bark | dark gray to dark brown, irregularly fissured with scaly ridges, inner bark orangish pink. |
gray, scaly. |
Twigs | reddish brown, (1-)2-3.5 mm diam., glabrous. |
tan-brown, becoming reddish gray, 1-1.5 mm diam., glabrate or hairy. |
Buds | tan or brown, subglobose, 1-1.5 mm, glabrate or scales inconspicuously ciliate. |
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Leaves | blade elliptic to ovate or obovate, 70-160 × 80-130 mm, base obtuse to truncate, margins with 5-9 deep lobes and 18-50 awns, lobes distally expanded, sinuses usually extending more than 1/2 distance to midrib, apex acute; surfaces abaxially glabrous except for minute axillary tufts of tomentum, adaxially glossy light green, glabrous, secondary veins raised on both surfaces. |
blade oblong to elliptic, 10-25(-60) × 8-25 mm, thick, leathery, base moderately to deeply cordate, petiole strongly depressed in basal sinus, margins inconspicuously toothed in distal 1/2, rarely entire, sometimes sublobate, somewhat revolute, secondary veins 5 or 6 on each side with few intermediates, branching, apex broadly rounded to subacute; surfaces abaxially dull gray-green or glaucous, completely glabrous or with a few stellate hairs on midrib, adaxially similar to abaxial surface, secondary veins somewhat raised on both surfaces. |
Acorns | biennial; cup turbinate to hemispheric, 7-13 mm high × 16.5-31.5 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface light to dark reddish brown, glossy, glabrous to puberulent, inner surface light brown, glabrous, occasionally with ring of pubescence around scar, scales often tuberculate, base broad, glossy, margins strongly concave with tips tightly appressed, acute to attenuate; nut oblong to subglobose, 12-22 × 10-21 mm, glabrous, with 1 or more rings of fine pits at apex, scar diam. 6.5-13.5 mm. |
paired on peduncle 7-15 mm; cup 4-7 mm deep × 8-13 mm wide, goblet-shaped, enclosing 1/4-1/2 nut, base somewhat constricted or rounded, scales moderately tuberculate, proximally densely gray-tomentose, tips rather closely appressed, reddish brown, abaxially glabrous, ciliate; nut tan-brown, elliptic to ovoid or globose, to 10-15 × 10-11 mm, apex rounded, glabrous. |
Cotyledons | connate. |
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Terminal | buds dark reddish brown, conic to ovoid, 4-7 mm, noticeably 5-angled in cross section, usually silvery- or tawny-pubescent distal to middle. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Quercus coccinea |
Quercus depressipes |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Poor soils, well-drained uplands, dry slopes, and ridges, occasionally on poorly drained sites | Grassland and open wooded slopes |
Elevation | 0-1500 m (0-4900 ft) | 2100-2600 m (6900-8500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; GA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV
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TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas) |
Discussion | Trees having acorns with broad, distinctly warty cups are sometimes classified as Quercus coccinea var. tuberculata Sargent. Quercus coccinea reportedly hybridizes with Q. imbricaria, Q. ilicifolia (= Q. ×robbinsii Trelease), Q. laevis, and Q. palustris (E. J. Palmer 1948) and with Q. phellos, Q. rubra, and Q. velutina (= Q. ×fontana Laughlin). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Quercus depressipes enters the United States in only one population on the highest portion of Mt. Livermore in trans-Pecos Texas; it has a wider distribution in the dry altiplano of northern Mexico. Its most distinctive characteristics are the combination of dwarf clonal habit, small glaucous leaves without spinose teeth, and connate cotyledons. In northern Mexico, it hybridizes locally with Q. rugosa. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Lobatae | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. coccinea var. tuberculata | Q. bocoynensis |
Name authority | Münchhausen: Hausvater 5(1): 254. (1770) | Trelease: Mem. Natl. Acad. Sci. 20: 90. (1924) |
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