Quercus coccinea |
Quercus pungens |
|
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scarlet oak |
pungent oak, sandpaper oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 30 m; lower trunk without stubs of dead branches. | Shrubs or moderate-sized trees, evergreen or subevergreen. |
Bark | dark gray to dark brown, irregularly fissured with scaly ridges, inner bark orangish pink. |
light brown, papery. |
Twigs | reddish brown, (1-)2-3.5 mm diam., glabrous. |
gray, 1-2 mm diam., short velvety-tomentose, glabrate with age. |
Buds | dark red-brown, ca. 2 mm, sparsely pubescent. |
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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 elliptic to oblong, 10-40(-90) × 10-20(-40) mm, rather thick, leathery, stiff, base rounded or minutely cordate, very rarely cuneate, margins regularly undulate-crisped, not revolute, coarsely toothed or incised with acute teeth or spinose lobes, secondary veins 5-8(-14) on each side, usually branched before passing into teeth, apex acute or obtuse, rarely rounded, spine-tipped; surfaces abaxially canescent, usually densely stellate-pubescent, and mixed with stiff, harsh, stellate hairs, often sandpapery to touch, rarely glabrate, adaxially yellowish green, glossy, usually rough and sandpapery because of minute, persistent hair bases, rarely glabrate. |
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. |
subsessile or on peduncle to 3 mm; cup shallowly to deeply cup-shaped or turbinate, to 8 mm deep × 13 mm wide, covering ca. 1/4 nut, margin thin, scales reddish brown, moderately tuberculate or keeled, densely gray-tomentose; nut light brown, broadly ovoid to subcylindric, to 10 × 10 mm, apex rounded to subacute, glabrous. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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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 pungens |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Poor soils, well-drained uplands, dry slopes, and ridges, occasionally on poorly drained sites | On dry limestone or igneous slopes, usually in oak, pinyon, and juniper woodlands, chaparral, and sometimes descending into desert vegetation |
Elevation | 0-1500 m (0-4900 ft) | 800-2000 m (2600-6600 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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AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua and Coahuila)
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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.) |
Numerous populations appear to be hybrid swarms between Quercus pungens and Q. vaseyana, which is sometimes treated as a variety of Q. pungens. No other evidence for a close relationship exists for these two species, and such a treatment risks erecting a polyphyletic assemblage. To the west and south within the range of Q. pungens no indication of introgression exists, and the two species are strikingly different and easily separable. I interpret the contact as secondary. (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. undulata var. pungens |
Name authority | Münchhausen: Hausvater 5(1): 254. (1770) | Liebmann: Overs. Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Forh. Medlemmers Arbeider 1854: 171. 185: not Q. pungens Gandoger 1890 |
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