Quercus pagoda |
Quercus pungens |
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cherrybark oak, Texas oak |
pungent oak, sandpaper oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 40 m. Bark nearly black with narrow and noticeably flaky ridges, often resembling that of wild black cherry, inner bark orange. | Shrubs or moderate-sized trees, evergreen or subevergreen. |
Bark | light brown, papery. |
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Twigs | yellowish brown, 2-3.5 mm diam., pubescent. |
gray, 1-2 mm diam., short velvety-tomentose, glabrate with age. |
Buds | dark red-brown, ca. 2 mm, sparsely pubescent. |
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Leaves | blade ovate to elliptic or obovate, 90-300 × 60-160 mm, base cuneate to rounded or truncate, margins with 5-11 lobes and 10-25 awns, lobes oblong, rarely falcate, terminal lobe rarely exceeding lateral lobes in length, apex acute; surfaces abaxially pale, tomentose, adaxially glossy, glabrous, secondary veins raised on both surfaces. |
blade elliptic to oblong, 10-40(-90) × 10-20(-40) mm, rather thick, leathery, stiff, base rounded or minutely cordate, very rarely cuneate, margins regularly undulate-crisped, not revolute, coarsely toothed or incised with acute teeth or spinose lobes, secondary veins 5-8(-14) on each side, usually branched before passing into teeth, apex acute or obtuse, rarely rounded, spine-tipped; surfaces abaxially canescent, usually densely stellate-pubescent, and mixed with stiff, harsh, stellate hairs, often sandpapery to touch, rarely glabrate, adaxially yellowish green, glossy, usually rough and sandpapery because of minute, persistent hair bases, rarely glabrate. |
Acorns | biennial; cup saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, 3-7 mm high × 10-18 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface puberulent, inner surface pubescent, scale tips tightly appressed, acute; nut subglobose, 9-15 × 8-16 mm, often striate, puberulent, scar diam. 5-9 mm. |
subsessile or on peduncle to 3 mm; cup shallowly to deeply cup-shaped or turbinate, to 8 mm deep × 13 mm wide, covering ca. 1/4 nut, margin thin, scales reddish brown, moderately tuberculate or keeled, densely gray-tomentose; nut light brown, broadly ovoid to subcylindric, to 10 × 10 mm, apex rounded to subacute, glabrous. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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Terminal | buds light reddish brown, ovoid, 4-9 mm, strongly 5-angled in cross section, puberulent throughout. |
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Quercus pagoda |
Quercus pungens |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Poorly drained bottoms and mesic slopes | On dry limestone or igneous slopes, usually in oak, pinyon, and juniper woodlands, chaparral, and sometimes descending into desert vegetation |
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | 800-2000 m (2600-6600 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
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AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua and Coahuila)
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Discussion | Quercus pagoda is often treated as a variety of Q. falcata; it is quite distinctive, however, both morphologically and ecologically (S. A. Ware 1967; R. J. Jensen 1989). This species reportedly hybridizes with Q. falcata and Q. phellos (D. M. Hunt 1989). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Numerous populations appear to be hybrid swarms between Quercus pungens and Q. vaseyana, which is sometimes treated as a variety of Q. pungens. No other evidence for a close relationship exists for these two species, and such a treatment risks erecting a polyphyletic assemblage. To the west and south within the range of Q. pungens no indication of introgression exists, and the two species are strikingly different and easily separable. I interpret the contact as secondary. (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. falcata var. leucophylla, Q. falcata var. pagodifolia, Q. leucophylla, Q. pagodifolia | Q. undulata var. pungens |
Name authority | Rafinesque: Alsogr. Amer., 23. (1838) | Liebmann: Overs. Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Forh. Medlemmers Arbeider 1854: 171. 185: not Q. pungens Gandoger 1890 |
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