Quercus nigra |
Quercus cornelius-mulleri |
|
---|---|---|
chêne gris, water oak |
desert scrub oak, muller oak, muller's oak |
|
Habit | Trees, deciduous or tardily deciduous, to 30 m. Bark grayish black, fissures irregular, shallow, inner bark pinkish. | Shrubs, evergreen or subevergreen, densely branched, 1-2(-3) m. Bark gray, scaly. |
Twigs | dark red-brown, 1.5-2.5 mm diam., glabrous. |
gray, yellowish, or brownish, 1-1.5 mm diam., densely tomentulose, rarely glabrate. |
Buds | dull brown, ovoid, 2.5-3 mm, glabrous except for margins of scales. |
|
Leaves | blade distinctly obtrullate, rarely elliptic or merely obovate, widest near apex, 30-120(-160) × 15-60(-70) mm, base attenuate or cuneate, rarely rounded, margins entire with 1 apical awn or with 2-3 shallow lobes and 2-5 awns (leaves on juvenile or 2d-flush growth may be deeply lobed with more awns), apex obtuse to blunt or rounded; surfaces abaxially glabrous except for minute or conspicuous axillary tufts of tomentum, veins rarely raised, adaxially glabrous with secondary veins somewhat impressed. |
blade strongly bicolored, ovate to oblong or narrowly obovate, 15-35 ×10-20 mm, rather thick and leathery, base cuneate or attenuate-rounded, margins entire or irregularly, shallowly toothed, teeth mucronate, rarely spinose, secondary veins 6-7 on each side, apex rounded or acute; surfaces abaxially whitish, densely covered with minute, compact, appressed, (8-)10-14(-16)-rayed stellate hairs less than 0.2 mm diam. (lateral fusion of rays visible under high magnification), without glandular seriate hairs, adaxially dull, light green, grayish, or yellowish green, with scattered, appressed-stellate hairs to 0.2 mm diam. |
Acorns | biennial; cup saucer-shaped, 2.5-5.5 mm high × 10-18 mm wide, covering 1/4 nut or less, outer surface puberulent, inner surface sparsely to uniformly pubescent, scale tips tightly appressed, acute; nut broadly ovoid, 9.5-14 × 9.5-14.5 mm, often faintly striate, glabrate, scar diam. 6-11.5 mm. |
solitary or clustered, subsessile; cup deeply cup-shaped or turbinate, to 5-13 mm deep × 12-20 mm wide, scales whitish or cream, strongly tuberculate especially near base of cup; nut dark brown, fusiform or cylyndric, 20-30 × 10-30 mm. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
|
Terminal | buds reddish brown, ovoid, 3-6.5 mm, puberulent throughout, occasionally densely pubescent on apical 2/3. |
|
Quercus nigra |
Quercus cornelius-mulleri |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering early spring. |
Habitat | Mesic alluvial and lowland sites, also barrens, dunes, hammocks, and low ridges to steep slopes | Open chaparral, pinyon and juniper woodlands, desert margins, often on loose granitic soils |
Elevation | 0-450 m (0-1500 ft) | 1000-1800 m (3300-5900 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
|
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
Discussion | Typically on mesic alluvial and lowland sites, Quercus nigra also occurs on a wide variety of soil types and in a diversity of habitats. Trees with 3-lobed leaves with attenuate bases have been recognized as Quercus nigra var. tridentifera Sargent. Quercus nigra reportedly hybridizes with Q. falcata (= Q. ×garlandensis E. J. Palmer), Q. incana, Q. laevis (= Q. ×walteriana Ashe), Q. marilandica (= Q. ×sterilis Trelease), Q. phellos (= Q. ×capesii W. Wolf), Q. shumardii (= Q. ×neopalmeri Sudworth), and Q. velutina (Q. ×demarei Ashe). In addition, D. M. Hunt (1989) cited evidence of hybridization also with Q. arkansana, Q. georgiana, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. laurifolia, Q. myrtifolia, Q. palustris, Q. rubra, and Q. texana. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Quercus cornelius-mulleri is easily distinguished from other California scrub oaks by the strongly bicolored leaves, dense minute tomentum of the abaxial leaf surface, and large acute acorns in deep tuberculate cups. Of greater difficulty are swarms of putative hybrids with Q. engelmannii, sometimes referred to as Q. ×acutidens. In Joshua Tree National Monument a lone tree and several shrubs appear to be hybrids and backcrosses between Quercus cornelius-mulleri and Q. lobata. This tree is the basis of Quercus ×munzii J. M. Tucker. (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. nana, Q. nigra var. tridentifera, Q. uliginosa | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 995. (1753) | Nixon & K. P. Steele: Madroño 28: 210. (1981) |
Web links |