FNA: Quercus muehlenbergii vs. Quercus havardii

	Quercus muehlenbergii	Quercus havardii
	Chinkapin oak, chinquapin oak, yellow chestnut oak	Havard oak, Havard's oak, Havard's shinnery oak, sand shinnery oak, sand shinoak, shinnery oak
Habit	Trees, deciduous, moderate to large, to 30 m, occasionally large shrubs (ca. 3 m) on drier sites.	Shrubs, deciduous, low, forming clones 0.3-1.5 × 10 m, rhizomatous.
Bark	gray, thin, flaky to papery.	light gray, scaly-papery.
Twigs	brownish, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., sparsely fine-pubescent, soon becoming glabrate, graying in 2d year.	brown or grayish, 1-2.5 mm diam., glabrous or densely short grayish or yellowish tomentulose, glabrate in age.
Buds	brown to red-brown, subrotund to broadly ovoid, 20-40 × (10-)15-25 mm, apex rounded, very sparsely pubescent.	dark red-brown, subglobose, ca. 2 mm, sparsely pubescent.
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 green, often turning brownish with age, polymorphic, oblong or elliptic or sometimes lanceolate to oblanceolate or ovate to obovate, (30-)50-100 × (10-)20-50 mm, rather thick and hard, base rounded to cuneate, margins flat to revolute, at least some undulate, 2-3 rounded teeth on each side, secondary veins 5-8 on each side, much branched, apex broadly rounded, rarely acute; surfaces abaxially densely grayish or yellowish tomentulose or stellate-pubescent, sometimes only sparsely pubescent, secondary veins quite prominent, adaxially lustrous, very sparsely stellate-pubescent or glabrate, secondary veins very slightly if at all raised.
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 or on peduncle to 10(-18) mm; cup from deeply cup-shaped to goblet-shaped, 10-12 mm deep × 15-25 mm wide, enclosing 1/3-1/2 nut, base rounded or slightly constricted, margin very thin and smooth, scales reddish brown, triangular-ovate to long-acute, proximally moderately to markedly tuberculate, pubescent, often canescent, tips loosely appressed; nut brown, ovoid, 12-25 × 14-18 mm.
Cotyledons	distinct.	distinct.
2n	= 24.

	Quercus muehlenbergii	Quercus havardii
Phenology	Flowering late winter–spring.	Flowering 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	Deep, shifting or stabilized sand dunes, off deep sands in putative hybrid populations
Elevation	0-2300 m (0-7500 ft)	500-1500 m (1600-4900 ft)
Distribution	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]	NM; OK; TX [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.)	Individual clones emerging to heights of 2-3 m from thickets occur sporadically across the Texas range of Quercus havardii and express some characteristics of Q. stellata, such as more deeply lobed leaves and smaller acorns. Such putative hybrids increase in frequency in the eastern part of the range of the species. Material of Quercus havardii from the Navajo Basin of Utah and adjacent Arizona has been treated as Q. havardii var. tuckeri Welsh. Welsh followed J. M. Tucker (1970) and interpreted these intermediate populations as putative hybrids between Q. havardii and both Q. turbinella and Q. gambelii. Giving varietal rank, instead of nothospecies status, to such populations seems arbitrary, and it certainly is inconsistent with their putative hybrid origins. (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. 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. 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. 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. acuminata, Q. brayi, Q. prinus var. acuminata
Name authority	Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 3: 391. (1887)	Rydberg: Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 213. (1901)
Web links	Local Web sites: Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Quercus havardii

Chinkapin oak, chinquapin oak, yellow chestnut oak

Havard oak, Havard's oak, Havard's shinnery oak, sand shinnery oak, sand shinoak, shinnery oak

Habit

Trees, deciduous, moderate to large, to 30 m, occasionally large shrubs (ca. 3 m) on drier sites.

Shrubs, deciduous, low, forming clones 0.3-1.5 × 10 m, rhizomatous.

Bark

gray, thin, flaky to papery.

light gray, scaly-papery.

Twigs

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

brown or grayish, 1-2.5 mm diam., glabrous or densely short grayish or yellowish tomentulose, glabrate in age.

Buds

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

dark red-brown, subglobose, ca. 2 mm, sparsely pubescent.

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 green, often turning brownish with age, polymorphic, oblong or elliptic or sometimes lanceolate to oblanceolate or ovate to obovate, (30-)50-100 × (10-)20-50 mm, rather thick and hard, base rounded to cuneate, margins flat to revolute, at least some undulate, 2-3 rounded teeth on each side, secondary veins 5-8 on each side, much branched, apex broadly rounded, rarely acute;

surfaces abaxially densely grayish or yellowish tomentulose or stellate-pubescent, sometimes only sparsely pubescent, secondary veins quite prominent, adaxially lustrous, very sparsely stellate-pubescent or glabrate, secondary veins very slightly if at all raised.

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 or on peduncle to 10(-18) mm;

cup from deeply cup-shaped to goblet-shaped, 10-12 mm deep × 15-25 mm wide, enclosing 1/3-1/2 nut, base rounded or slightly constricted, margin very thin and smooth, scales reddish brown, triangular-ovate to long-acute, proximally moderately to markedly tuberculate, pubescent, often canescent, tips loosely appressed;

nut brown, ovoid, 12-25 × 14-18 mm.

Cotyledons

distinct.

= 24.

Quercus muehlenbergii

Quercus havardii

Phenology

Flowering late winter–spring.

Flowering 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

Deep, shifting or stabilized sand dunes, off deep sands in putative hybrid populations

Elevation

0-2300 m (0-7500 ft)

500-1500 m (1600-4900 ft)

Distribution

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]

NM; OK; TX

[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.)

Individual clones emerging to heights of 2-3 m from thickets occur sporadically across the Texas range of Quercus havardii and express some characteristics of Q. stellata, such as more deeply lobed leaves and smaller acorns. Such putative hybrids increase in frequency in the eastern part of the range of the species.

Material of Quercus havardii from the Navajo Basin of Utah and adjacent Arizona has been treated as Q. havardii var. tuckeri Welsh. Welsh followed J. M. Tucker (1970) and interpreted these intermediate populations as putative hybrids between Q. havardii and both Q. turbinella and Q. gambelii. Giving varietal rank, instead of nothospecies status, to such populations seems arbitrary, and it certainly is inconsistent with their putative hybrid origins.

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

Source

FNA vol. 3.

Parent taxa

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. 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. 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. acuminata, Q. brayi, Q. prinus var. acuminata

Name authority

Engelmann: Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 3: 391. (1887)

Rydberg: Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 213. (1901)

Web links

Local Web sites: Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database
LBJ Wildflower Center
SEINet
Plants of the World Online
Encyclopedia of Life
Wikipedia
Google Image Search

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).

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

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Quercus muehlenbergii

Quercus havardii

Quercus muehlenbergii

Quercus havardii