Quercus ellipsoidalis |
Quercus muehlenbergii |
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Hill's oak, Jack oak, northern pin oak |
Chinkapin oak, chinquapin oak, yellow chestnut oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 20 m; lower trunk often with stubs of dead branches. | Trees, deciduous, moderate to large, to 30 m, occasionally large shrubs (ca. 3 m) on drier sites. |
Bark | dark gray-brown, shallowly fissured, inner bark orangish. |
gray, thin, flaky to papery. |
Twigs | dark reddish brown, (1-)1.5-3 mm diam., glabrous. |
brownish, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., sparsely fine-pubescent, soon becoming glabrate, graying in 2d year. |
Buds | brown to red-brown, subrotund to broadly ovoid, 20-40 × (10-)15-25 mm, apex rounded, very sparsely pubescent. |
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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 usually obovate, sometimes lanceolate to oblanceolate, (32-)50-150(-210) × (10-)40-80(-106) mm, leathery, base truncate to cuneate, margins regularly undulate, toothed or shallow-lobed, teeth or lobes rounded, or acute-acuminate, often strongly antrorse, secondary veins usually (9-)10-14(-16) on each side, ± parallel, apex short-acute to acuminate or apiculate; surfaces abaxially glaucous or light green, appearing glabrate but with scattered or crowded minute, appressed, symmetric, 6-10-rayed stellate hairs, adaxially lustrous dark green, glabrate. |
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. |
1-2, subsessile or on axillary peduncle to 8 mm; cup hemispheric or shallowly cupped, 4-12 mm deep × 8-22 mm wide, enclosing 1/4-1/2 nut, base rounded, margin usually thin, scales closely appressed, moderately to prominently tuberculate, uniformly short gray-pubescent; nut light brown, oblong to ovoid, (13-)15-20(-28) × 10-13(-16) mm. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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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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2n | = 24. |
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Quercus ellipsoidalis |
Quercus muehlenbergii |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering late winter–spring. |
Habitat | Dry sandy sites, rarely on moderately mesic slopes or uplands | Mixed deciduous forest, woodlands and thickets, sometimes restricted to n slopes and riparian habitats in w parts of range, limestone and calcareous soils, rarely on other substrates |
Elevation | 150-500 m (500-1600 ft) | 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft) |
Distribution |
IA; IL; IN; MI; MN; OH; WI; ON
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AL; AR; CT; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Hidalgo, and Tamaulipas)
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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.) |
Shrubby forms of Quercus muhlenbergii are difficult to distinguish from Quercus prinoides, but Q. muhlenbergii does not spread clonally or produce acorns on small shrubs as does Q. prinoides. The edaphic preferences of these two species are distinctive, with Q. muhlenbergii never far from limestone substrates and Q. prinoides occurring mostly on dry shales and deep sands. Populations of Q. muhlenbergii from the southwest part of its range, on the Edwards Plateau of Texas and westward, sometimes are segregated as Q. brayi Small, but the variation appears to be clinal with inconsistent differences. Distributed from Hidalgo, Mexico to Maine, Q. muhlenbergii is one of the most widespread species of temperate North American trees. The Delaware-Ontario prepared infusions from the bark of Quercus muhlenbergii to stop vomiting (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. Lobatae | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. ellipsoidalis var. kaposianensis | Q. acuminata, Q. brayi, Q. prinus var. acuminata |
Name authority | E. J. Hill: Bot. Gaz. 27: 204, plates 2, 3. (1899) | Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 3: 391. (1887) |
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