Quercus turbinella |
Quercus berberidifolia |
|
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grey oak, shrub live oak, Sonoran scrub oak, turbinella oak |
California scrub oak, inland scrub oak, scrub oak |
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Habit | Shrubs or small trees, evergreen or subevergreen, to 4 m. Bark light gray or brown, scaly. | Shrubs, subevergreen, 1-2(-4) m. Bark gray, scaly. |
Twigs | brown to gray, 1-3 mm diam., usually tomentulose, sometimes glabrous, becoming glabrate. |
gray, yellowish, rarely reddish, 1-3 mm diam. |
Buds | brown, round to ovoid, 1-2 mm, minutely pubescent. |
reddish brown, globose or ovoid, 2-3 mm, minutely puberulent. |
Leaves | blade elliptic or ovate, (1.5-)20-30 × (5-)10-15(-20) mm, thick, leathery, base cordate or rounded, margins planar or slightly crisped-undulate, coarsely 3-5-toothed or very shallowly lobed on each side, teeth spinose with spines 1-1.5 mm, secondary veins 4-8 on each side, apex acute or obtuse; surfaces abaxially yellow or reddish, usually glaucous, minutely stellate-puberulent, adaxially grayish, glaucous, or yellowish glandular, glabrous or sparsely and minutely stellate-pubescent. |
blade bicolored, obovate, elliptic, occasionally subrotund, planar or moderately convex, (10-)15-30 × (8-)10-20 mm, base truncate or rounded-attenuate, rarely cuneate, margins irregularly toothed and spinose, often sublobate, rarely entire, secondary veins (3-)4-7 on each side, apex broadly rounded or acute; surfaces abaxially waxy, light green or glaucous, with scattered minute, appressed, (4-)8(-10)-rayed hairs less than 0.2 mm diam. and sparse to dense yellowish, glandular hairs, adaxially glossy or dull green, glabrous or glabrate. |
Acorns | solitary or several, on axillary peduncle 10-40 mm; cup hemispheric or shallowly cup-shaped, 4-6 mm deep × 8-12 mm wide, covering 1/4-1/2 nut, scales tightly appressed, ovate, moderately tuberculate, grayish or yellowish puberulent; nut light brown, ovoid, to 20 × 11 mm, minutely puberulent or glabrate. |
solitary or paired, subsessile; cup hemispheric or turbinate, rarely shallowly cup-shaped, rim thick, 8-15 mm deep × 15-20(-22) mm wide, enclosing to 1/2 nut, scales reddish or yellowish, usually strongly, irregularly tuberculate, puberulent or canescent; nut light to dark brown, ovoid, ellipsoid, or barrel-shaped, (10-)15-30 × (8-)10-20 mm, apex rounded, glabrous at maturity. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
distinct. |
Quercus turbinella |
Quercus berberidifolia |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Dry desert slopes, often in juniper and pinyon woodlands | Chaparral, margins of coastal sage scrub |
Elevation | 800-2000 m (2600-6600 ft) | 100-1800 m (300-5900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; TX; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora, and probably n Chihuahua)
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CA
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Discussion | Formerly, California populations of what here is referred to as Quercus john-tuckeri have been included in the concept of Q. turbinella. Quercus john-tuckeri has subsessile fruit and noncordate leaf bases as opposed to the consistently pedunculate fruit and strongly cordate leaf bases of Q. turbinella. The two species seem to be no more closely related to each other than each might be to other southwestern oaks, and Q. john-tuckeri shares at least as many characteristics with Q. berberidifolia as with Q. turbinella. Thus, treatment of these two taxa as varieties of the same species is inappropriate. Quercus turbinella forms putative hybrid swarms with Q. gambelii (see treatment), as well as with Q. grisea. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The name Quercus dumosa (see species treatment no. 72) has often been applied to this species. Quercus berberidifolia is the most common scrub oak of central and southern California, mostly at midelevations in the Coast Ranges. In central California it is replaced in drier interior habitats by Q. john-tuckeri, and south of the transverse ranges by Q. cornelius-mulleri. From Santa Barbara south, it does not descend to the low elevation coastal sites typical of Q. dumosa in the strict sense. Quercus berberidifolia hybridizes with numerous other white oaks of California. In southern California, putative hybrids with Q. john-tuckeri are noticeable in the mountains above Ventura and on the north slope of the Tehachapi Mountains. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. dumosa var. turbinella, Q. subturbinella | Q. agrifolia var. berberidifolia, Q. dumosa var. munita |
Name authority | Greene: Ill. W. Amer. Oaks 1: 37. (1889) | Liebmann: Overs. Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Forh. Medlemmers Arbeider 1854: 172. (1854) |
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