Flora of North America species comparison

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Quercus muehlenbergii

Quercus durata

Chinkapin oak, chinquapin oak, yellow chestnut oak

leather oak
Habit Trees, deciduous, moderate to large, to 30 m, occasionally large shrubs (ca. 3 m) on drier sites. Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2(-3) m. Bark scaly.
Bark

gray, thin, flaky to papery.

Twigs

brownish, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., sparsely fine-pubescent, soon becoming glabrate, graying in 2d year.

gray or yellowish, 1-3 mm diam., densely or sparsely tomentulose, often with prominent, yellowish, spreading hairs.
Buds

brown to red-brown, subrotund to broadly ovoid, 20-40 × (10-)15-25 mm, apex rounded, very sparsely pubescent.

brown or reddish brown, ovoid or globose, 1-2 mm, glabrous or puberulent.
Leaves

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.

blade cupped or convex, rarely somewhat planar, (10-)15-40 × 7-15(-20) mm, base cuneate, rounded-attenuate, or truncate, margins entire or irregularly toothed, sometimes spinose, usually unevenly revolute, secondary veins 4-6 on each side, apex rounded or subacute;

surfaces abaxially densely to sparsely covered with erect, stipitate, (1-)2-4(-6)-rayed hairs 1-4 mm, felty to touch, secondary veins prominent, adaxially grayish or yellowish, with dense or scattered, semi-erect or appressed hairs, secondary veins obscure or somewhat impressed.
Acorns

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.

solitary or paired, subsessile;

cup reddish, hemispheric, deeply cup-shaped or turbinate, 4-6 mm deep × 12-18 mm wide, enclosing to 1/2 nut or more, scales reddish or yellowish, weakly to strongly tuberculate, often somewhat glandular;

nut globose, ovoid or cylindric, 15-25 × 10-25 mm, apex rounded or obtuse, persistently minute-puberulent.
Cotyledons

distinct.

distinct.
2n

= 24.

Quercus muehlenbergii

Quercus durata
Phenology Flowering late winter–spring.
Habitat 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 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
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)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Chaparral, oak woodlands, open pine forests, on serpentine and nonserpentine soils; 150-1500 m.

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blade adaxially grayish stellate, usually deeply cupped, growth compact; leaves densely crowded on twigs; serpentine soils, Santa Barbara County and northward.
var. durata
1. Leaf blade adaxially greenish, glabrate or essentially so, rarely deeply cupped, usually moderately cupped or subplanar, growth open, scraggly; leaves not densely crowded; nonserpentine soils, Los Angeles County.
var. gabrielensis
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus
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. 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. 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. ellipsoidalis, 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
Subordinate taxa
Q. durata var. durata, Q. durata var. gabrielensis
Synonyms Q. acuminata, Q. brayi, Q. prinus var. acuminata Q. dumosa var. bullata, Q. dumosa var. revoluta
Name authority Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 3: 391. (1887) Jepson: Fl. Calif. 1(2): 356. (1909)
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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