Quercus stellata |
Quercus durata |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
post oak |
leather oak |
|||||
Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 20(-30) m. Bark light gray, scaly. | Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2(-3) m. Bark scaly. | ||||
Twigs | yellowish or grayish, (2-)3-5 mm diam., densely stellate-pubescent. |
gray or yellowish, 1-3 mm diam., densely or sparsely tomentulose, often with prominent, yellowish, spreading hairs. |
||||
Buds | reddish brown, ovoid, to 4 mm, apex obtuse or acute, sparsely pubescent. |
brown or reddish brown, ovoid or globose, 1-2 mm, glabrous or puberulent. |
||||
Leaves | blade obovate to narrowly obovate, elliptic or obtriangular, 40-150(-200) × 20-100(-120) mm, rather stiff and hard, base rounded-attenuate to cordate, sometimes cuneate, margins shallowly to deeply lobed, lobes rounded or spatulate, usually distal 2 lobes divergent at right angles to midrib in cruciform pattern, secondary veins 3-5 on each side, apex broadly rounded; surfaces abaxially yellowish green, with crowded yellowish glandular hairs and scattered minute, 6-8-rayed, appressed or semi-appressed stellate hairs, not velvety to touch, adaxially dark or yellowish green, dull or glossy, sparsely stellate, often somewhat sandpapery with harsh hairs. |
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 | 1-3, subsessile or on peduncle to 6(-40) mm; cup deeply saucer-shaped, proximally rounded or constricted, 7-12(-18) mm deep × (7-)10-15(-25) mm wide, enclosing 1/4-2/3 nut, scales tightly appressed, finely grayish pubescent; nut light brown, ovoid or globose, 10-20 × 8-12(-20) mm, glabrous or finely puberulent. |
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. |
||||
Quercus stellata |
Quercus durata |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||
Habitat | Usually on xeric sites, dry gravelly and sandy ridges and uplands, dry clays, prairies and limestone hills, woodlands and deciduous forests | |||||
Elevation | 0-750 m (0-2500 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
|
CA
|
||||
Discussion | Quercus stellata is often identified by its commonly cross-shaped leaf form, particularly in the eastern part of its range. All individuals and populations do not express this characteristic, however. Moreover, Q. stellata has broad overlap with Q. margaretta and even with some forms of the blackjack oak, Q. marilandica, one of its most common associates. The thick yellowish twigs with indument of stellate hairs and the dense harsh stellate hairs on the abaxial leaf surface are better diagnostic characteristics when variation includes leaf forms that are not obviously cruciform. Native Americans used Quercus stellata medicinally for indigestion, chronic dysentery, mouth sores, chapped skin, hoarseness, and milky urine, as an antiseptic, and as a wash for fever and chills (D. E. Moerman 1986). Putative hybrids are known with Quercus marilandica, Q. alba, and various other white oaks. Quercus stellata is also one of the few oaks that appears to produce hybrids with species in the live oak group, although obvious intermediates are rarely encountered. Nothospecies names based on putative hybrids involving Q. stellata include: Q. ×stelloides E. J. Palmer (= Q. prinoides × Q. stellata), Q. ×mahloni E. J. Palmer (as Q. sinuata var. breviloba × Q. stellata), Q. ×pseudomargaretta Trelease (= Q. margaretta × Q. stellata), Q. ×sterretti Trelease (= Q. lyrata × Q. stellata), Q. ×macnabiana Sudworth (= Q. sinuata × Q. stellata), Q. ×guadalupensis Sargent (= Q. sinuata × Q. stellata), Q. ×fernowi Trelease (= Q. alba × Q. stellata), and Q. ×bernardensis W. Wolf (= Q. montana × Q. stellata). (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 |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||
Parent taxa | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Q. minor, Q. obtusiloba | Q. dumosa var. bullata, Q. dumosa var. revoluta | ||||
Name authority | Wangenheim: Beytr. Teut. Forstwiss., 78, plate 6, fig. 15. (1787) | Jepson: Fl. Calif. 1(2): 356. (1909) | ||||
Web links |