Quercus ellipsoidalis |
Quercus depressipes |
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Hill's oak, Jack oak, northern pin oak |
Davis Mountain oak, depressed oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 20 m; lower trunk often with stubs of dead branches. | Shrubs, evergreen or subevergreen, low, to 1 m, often forming dense thickets, rhizomatous. |
Bark | dark gray-brown, shallowly fissured, inner bark orangish. |
gray, scaly. |
Twigs | dark reddish brown, (1-)1.5-3 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, 70-130 × 50-100 mm, base obtuse to truncate, margins with 5-7 deep lobes and 15-55 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 narrowly turbinate to deeply cup-shaped, 6-11 mm high × 10-19 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface reddish brown, puberulent, inner surface light brown, glabrous, rarely with ring of pubescence around scar, scales with straight or slightly concave margins, tips tightly appressed, obtuse or acute; nut ellipsoid to ovoid, rarely subglobose, 10-20 × 9-15 mm, occasionally striate, glabrous, occasionally with 1 or more faint rings of fine pits at apex, scar diam. 4-8 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, ovoid, 3-5 mm, often conspicuously 5-angled in cross section, usually silvery- or tawny-pubescent toward apex. |
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Quercus ellipsoidalis |
Quercus depressipes |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Dry sandy sites, rarely on moderately mesic slopes or uplands | Grassland and open wooded slopes |
Elevation | 150-500 m (500-1600 ft) | 2100-2600 m (6900-8500 ft) |
Distribution |
IA; IL; IN; MI; MN; OH; WI; ON
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TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas) |
Discussion | In many treatments (e.g., E. G. Voss 1972+, vol. 2), Quercus ellipsoidalis is included in Q. coccinea. Variation in fruit morphology has led to recognition of several formae (W. Trelease 1919; see also R. J. Jensen 1986) and one variety (Q. ellipsoidalis var. kaposianensis, based on specimens from St. Paul, Minnesota, in which the cup tightly encloses the nut for two-thirds its length at maturity). Quercus ellipsoidalis reportedly hybridizes with Q. rubra and Q. velutina. The Menominee used Quercus ellipsoidalis medicinally to treat suppressed menses caused by cold (D. E. Moerman 1986). (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. ellipsoidalis var. kaposianensis | Q. bocoynensis |
Name authority | E. J. Hill: Bot. Gaz. 27: 204, plates 2, 3. (1899) | Trelease: Mem. Natl. Acad. Sci. 20: 90. (1924) |
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