Quercus texana |
Quercus mohriana |
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Nuttall's oak, Texas red oak |
Mohr oak, Mohr's oak, Mohr's shinoak |
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Habit | Trees, deciduous, to 25 m. Bark dark brown with flat ridges divided by shallow fissures. | Shrubs or trees, evergreen or deciduous, shrubs erect, rhizomatous, trees small, 0.5-3 m. Bark pale, rough and deeply furrowed. |
Twigs | red-brown to gray, 1.5-3(-3.5) mm diam., glabrous. |
yellowish or whitish, 1-2 mm diam., felty-tomentose. |
Buds | dark red-brown, round-ovoid, 2 mm, glabrous, occasionally puberulent on outer scales, not subtended by persistent, hairy, subulate stipules. |
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Leaves | blade ovate to elliptic or obovate, 75-200 × 55-130 mm, base cuneate to almost truncate, often inequilateral, margins with 6-11 lobes and 9-24 awns, lobes oblong to distally expanded, rarely falcate, apex acute; surfaces abaxially glabrous except for conspicuous axillary tufts of tomentum, veins raised, adaxially planar, glabrous. |
blade usually strongly bicolored, oblong or elliptic, (15-)30-50(-80) × (10-)20-30(-35) mm, leathery, base rounded, rarely cuneate or cordulate, margins entire or toothed or denticulate, undulate or flat, secondary veins 8-9 on each side, apex rounded or acute; surfaces abaxially densely gray- or white-tomentose with semi-erect curly, stellate hairs, secondary veins rather prominently raised, adaxially dark or dull green, lustrous or somewhat glaucous, with minute, scattered, semi-erect or appressed-stellate, (4-)6 or many rayed hairs, not felty to touch, secondary veins slightly raised or prominent within depressions. |
Acorns | biennial; cup thin (scale bases visible on inner surface), deeply goblet-shaped with pronounced constriction at base, 10-16 mm high × 15-22 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface glabrous to sparsely puberulent, inner surface sparsely to uniformly pubescent, scale tips appressed, acute; nut broadly ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 15-26 × 13-18 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent, scar diam. 8-13 mm, scar often orangish. |
solitary or paired, subsessile or peduncle sometimes 10-15 mm, tomentose like twigs; cup shallowly to very deeply cup-shaped, 5-12 mm deep × 8-18 mm wide, enclosing 1/2 nut, base rounded or flat, margin thin, scales triangular-ovate to oblong, proximal scales coarsely tuberculate and canescent-tomentose, distal ones usually elongate and narrowed, tips appressed, reddish, thin, nearly glabrous; nut light brown, ellipsoid to ovoid, 8-15 × 5-12 mm. |
Cotyledons | connate. |
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Terminal | buds gray to gray-brown, ovoid, 3-7 mm, glabrous or with scales somewhat ciliate at apex. |
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Quercus texana |
Quercus mohriana |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Flood plains and bottomlands | Limestone hills and slopes, calcareous substrates |
Elevation | 0-200 m (0-700 ft) | 600-2500 m (2000-8200 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; IL; KY; LA; MO; MS; TN; TX
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NM; OK; TX; Mexico (Coahuila)
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Discussion | For many years the name Quercus texana was erroneously used for Q. buckleyi (L. J. Dorr and K. C. Nixon 1985). A few authors have also used the name for Q. gravesii. Quercus nuttallii E. J. Palmer var. cachensis E. J. Palmer was described as a small-fruited form (nuts 16-18 × 12-16 mm) from specimens collected in east-central Arkansas (E. J. Palmer 1937). Noting the similarity between Q. nuttallii var. cachensis and Q. palustris, Palmer discounted the possibility of the former being of hybrid origin because (1) he had not observed Q. palustris in the type locality, and (2) the leaves and buds of the former were essentially the same as in Q. nuttallii var. nuttallii. C. H. Muller (1942), on the other hand, argued that Quercus nuttallii was nothing more than a form [forma nuttallii (E. J. Palmer) C. H. Muller] of Q. palustris. This is a puzzling conclusion because it was based largely on the premise that Q. nuttallii occurred "...with the parent species throughout a large part of the latter's southern range (Mississippi to eastern Texas and southeastern Missouri)." The range of Q. palustris does not extend into Mississippi or eastern Texas, although its range does overlap that of Q. texana in eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri. E. J. Palmer (1948) and D. M. Hunt (1989) have suggested hybridization with Q. shumardii and Q. nigra, respectively. See L. J. Dorr and K. C. Nixon (1985) for an explanation of the nomenclatural confusion regarding this taxon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Putative hybrids between Quercus mohriana Buckley and Q. grisea Liebmann are problematic and highly polymorphic. They are restricted to zones of contact between limestone, the preferred habitat of Q. mohriana, and igneous substrates, the preferred habitat of Q. grisea, or sometimes on dolomite, in western Texas. (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. nuttallii, Q. rubra var. texana, Q. shumardii var. texana | |
Name authority | Buckley: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 12: 444. (1860) | Buckley: in Rydberg, Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 219. (1901) |
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