Quercus palmeri |
Quercus oglethorpensis |
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Palmer oak, Palmer's oak |
Oglethorpe oak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 18(-25) m. Bark light gray or whitish, scaly. | |
Twigs | brownish red, ca. 1 mm diam., sparsely pubescent, glabrate with age. |
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Buds | reddish brown, globose, to 2-2.5 mm, sparsely pubescent or glabrous. |
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Leaves | blade suborbiculate, elliptic to round-ovate, 20-30(-50) × 20-40 mm, crisped, leathery and brittle, base obtuse to strongly subcordate, secondary veins 5-8(-12) pairs, each terminating in spine, basal pairs recurving, others branching at 45° angles, raised abaxially, margins spinose-dentate to occasionally entire, with highly thickened cell walls, spines cartilaginous, (1-)1.5-2 mm, apex broadly rounded or subacute, spinose; surfaces abaxially glaucous with waxy layer, often obscured by golden brown glandular hairs, adaxially grayish dark green, scurfy with fasciculate erect and twisting hairs. |
blade narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, ± planar, not strongly convexly cupped, 50-150 × 20-45 mm, base cuneate to cordate, margins entire or on vigorous shoots sometimes sinuate near apex, secondary veins 3-5 on each side, apex rounded, obtuse or broadly acute; surfaces abaxially yellowish green, covered with persistent velvety branched hairs, adaxially dark green, dull or glossy, sparsely stellate, often somewhat sandpapery with harsh hairs. |
Acorns | solitary or rarely paired; cup turbinate to saucer-shaped, margins involute, often irregular, 7-10 mm deep × 10-25(-35) mm wide, scales appressed, embedded, often appearing laterally connate into concentric rings with only tip of scale visible, tuberculate, densely golden-tomentose throughout; nut oblong to fusiform, 20-30 × 10-15 mm, apex acute. |
1-2, subsessile or on peduncle to 7 mm; cup turbinate, somewhat constricted proximally, 8 mm deep × 10 mm wide, enclosing 1/3 nut or more, scales closely appressed, finely tan-pubescent; nut gray brown, ovoid, 9-11 × (5-)7-9 mm, finely puberulent. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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Small | trees and shrubs, to 2-3 m. Twigs rigid, divaricately branched at 65-90° angles, reddish brown, 1.5-3 mm diam., pubescent, sparsely so in 2d year. |
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Terminal | buds ovoid, 1-1.5 mm, apex rounded, glabrous. |
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Quercus palmeri |
Quercus oglethorpensis |
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Phenology | Flowering in spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Disjunct in canyons, mountain washes, dry thickets, and margins of chapparal communities | Alluvial flatwoods and streamsides in rich woods, low pastures, and edge of bottomland forests |
Elevation | 700-1800 m (2300-5900 ft) | 0-200 m (0-700 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; Mexico (n Baja California)
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GA; LA; MS; SC |
Discussion | Populations of Quercus palmeri are often small and may exist as single clones. The disjunct populations of California and Baja California are consistent morphologically. In Arizona populations, individuals tend to have flatter leaves bearing fewer teeth; this distinction is not constant, however. Morphologically aberrant populations identified as Q. palmeri in eastern Arizona (Chiracahua, Huachuca, and Santa Catalina mountains) and southwestern New Mexico are most likely the result of introgression from Q. palmeri to Q. chrysolepis (J. M. Tucker and H. S. Haskell 1960). Those populations tend to be intermediate in overall morphology, but all lack the diagnostic trichomes and biochemical markers of Q. palmeri; they are best classified as Q. chrysolepis affinity Q. palmeri. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. Since its original discovery in 1940 in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, Quercus oglethorpensis has been found to be more common locally near the type site in Georgia and South Carolina than originally thought. It remains one of the least-known oak species of the southeastern United States. Quercus oglethorpensis is one of our most distinctive eastern oaks, easily recognized by its narrow, entire, abaxially felty leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Protobalanus | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. dunnii | |
Name authority | Engelmann: in S. Watson, Bot. California 2: 97. (1880) | Duncan: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 24: 755. (1940) |
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