Flora of North America species comparison

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Quercus fusiformis

Quercus ellipsoidalis

escarpment live oak, live oak, plateau oak, Texas live oak

Hill's oak, Jack oak, northern pin oak
Habit Trees, sometimes shrubs, subevergreen, trees to 25 m, shrubs often forming large clonal stands. Trees, deciduous, to 20 m; lower trunk often with stubs of dead branches.
Bark

dark brown or black, scaly.

dark gray-brown, shallowly fissured, inner bark orangish.
Twigs

light gray, 1.5-3 mm diam., tomentulose, tomentulum often persistent in age.

dark reddish brown, (1-)1.5-3 mm diam., glabrous.
Buds

reddish or dark brown, subglobose or ovate, 1.5-3 mm;

scale margins glabrous or puberulent.

Leaves

blade oblong-elliptic to narrowly ovate or lanceolate, sometimes obovate, ± planar, (10-)35-90(-150) × (15-)20-40(-85) mm, base rounded to truncate or cordate, rarely cuneate, margins minutely revolute or flat, entire or irregularly 1-3 toothed on each side, teeth mucronate (rarely spinose in suckers or juveniles), secondary veins obscure, 8-10 on each side, apex obtuse-rounded or acute;

surfaces abaxially whitish or glaucous, densely covered with minute, appressed, fused-stellate hairs, light green and glabrate in shade leaves, adaxially dark or light green, glossy, glabrous or with minute, scattered, stellate hairs.

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.
Acorns

1-3, on peduncle 3-30 mm;

cup funnel-shaped, hemispheric, or deeply goblet-shaped, 8-15 mm deep × 6-12(-15) mm wide, base often constricted, scales whitish or grayish, thickened basally, keeled, acute-attenuate, tomentulose, tips reddish, glabrous or puberulent;

nut dark brown, often with light brown longitudinal stripes, subfusiform and acute to narrowly barrel-shaped, rarely distally rounded, (17-)20-30(-33) × 8-15 mm, glabrous.

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.
Cotyledons

connate.

Terminal

buds dark reddish brown, ovoid, 3-5 mm, often conspicuously 5-angled in cross section, usually silvery- or tawny-pubescent toward apex.

Quercus fusiformis

Quercus ellipsoidalis
Phenology Flowering spring. Flowering spring.
Habitat Hills, grasslands, scrublands, open woodlands, oak-juniper woodland, and margins of thorn scrub, often on limestone or deep calcareous loams, sometimes on granular sand or gravel Dry sandy sites, rarely on moderately mesic slopes or uplands
Elevation 0-1200 m (0-3900 ft) 150-500 m (500-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
OK; TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
IA; IL; IN; MI; MN; OH; WI; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The difficulty in distinguishing Texas populations of Quercus fusiformis from Q. virginiana is reflected in a variety of taxonomic treatments, including reducing Q. fusiformis to varietal rank under Q. virginiana. The latter disposition is problematic, however, because Q. fusiformis in northeastern Mexico is amply distinct from Q. virginiana and appears to be more closely related to Q. brandegei Goldmann, an endemic of Baja California, Mexico. Thus, here we assume that the intergradation of Q. virginiana and Q. fusiformis is a result of secondary contact, and is not primary clinal variation. Under this interpretation, Q. virginiana in typical form extends into Texas only as far west as the Brazos River drainage along the coast from there to the escarpment of the Edwards Plateau; most populations elsewhere are either intermediate between the two species or show greater affinity with Q. fusiformis. On the Edwards Plateau, the live oak populations are small trees forming rhizomatous copses (shinneries) and having mostly acute acorns.

Populations of live oak on deep sands in south Texas differ from typical Quercus fusiformis in having broader, more rounded leaves, often with the secondary veins somewhat impressed abaxially, and relatively blunt, barrel-shaped acorns. These characteristics suggest introgresion from the Mexican-Central American species Q. oleoides Schlechtendal & Chamisso, which in its typical form reaches north only as far as southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. The name Q. oleoides var. quaterna C. H. Muller has been applied to what is apparently a shrub form of one of these Q. fusiformis × Q. oleoides hybrids.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

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.)
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Lobatae
Sibling taxa
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. montana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. prinoides, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. turbinella, Q. vacciniifolia, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. fusiformis, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. montana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. prinoides, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. turbinella, Q. vacciniifolia, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Synonyms Q. virginiana var. fusiformis Q. ellipsoidalis var. kaposianensis
Name authority Small: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 28: 357. (1901) E. J. Hill: Bot. Gaz. 27: 204, plates 2, 3. (1899)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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