Flora of North America species comparison

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Quercus turbinella

Quercus montana

grey oak, shrub live oak, Sonoran scrub oak, turbinella oak

chestnut oak, mountain chestnut oak, rock chestnut oak
Habit Shrubs or small trees, evergreen or subevergreen, to 4 m. Bark light gray or brown, scaly. Trees, deciduous, to 30 m. Bark dark gray or brown, hard, with deep V-shaped furrows.
Twigs

brown to gray, 1-3 mm diam., usually tomentulose, sometimes glabrous, becoming glabrate.

light brown, 2-3(-4) mm diam., glabrous.
Buds

brown, round to ovoid, 1-2 mm, minutely pubescent.

light brown, ovoid, (3-)4-6 mm, occasionally apex acute, glabrous.
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 obovate to narrowly elliptic or narrowly obovate, (100-)120-200(-220) × 60-100(-120) mm, base subacute or rounded-acuminate, often unequal, margins regularly toothed, teeth rounded or rarely somewhat acute, secondary veins ± parallel, straight or moderately curved, 10-14(-16) on each side, apex broadly acuminate;

surfaces abaxially light green, appearing glabrous but with scattered minute, asymmetric, appressed-stellate hairs and usually visible, larger, simple or fascicled erect hairs along veins, adaxially dark green, glossy, glabrous or with minute, scattered, simple hairs.
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.

1-3, subsessile or on peduncle 8-20(-25) mm;

cup shallowly cup-shaped to hemispheric or deeply goblet-shaped, rim thin, often flared and undulate, helmetlike, 9-15 mm deep × 18-25 mm wide, scales often in concentric or transverse rows, laterally connate, gray, broadly ovate, tips reddish, glabrous;

nut light brown, ovoid-ellipsoid, 15-30 × 10-20(-25) mm, glabrous.
Cotyledons

distinct.

distinct.
2n

= 24.

Quercus turbinella

Quercus montana
Phenology Flowering spring. Flowering mid-late spring.
Habitat Dry desert slopes, often in juniper and pinyon woodlands Rocky upland forest, dry ridges, mixed deciduous forests on shallow soils
Elevation 800-2000 m (2600-6600 ft) 0-1400 m (0-4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; TX; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora, and probably n Chihuahua)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; CT; DE; GA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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 prinus Linnaeus is often applied to this species, particularly in the forestry literature, and in many regional floras. In a number of works, however, Q. prinus has been applied to the species here treated as Q. michauxii. Following the recommendations of J. W. Hardin (1979), because of the persistent confusion in the application of the name Q. prinus and uncertainty regarding the identity of the Linnean type materials, the names Q. montana and Q. michauxii should be used for the two species that have been variously called Q. prinus. Quercus prinus under this interpretation is a name of uncertain position.

The four species of the chestnut oak group in eastern North America (Quercus montana, Q. michauxii, Q. muhlenbergii, and Q. prinoides) are somewhat difficult to distinguish unless careful attention is paid to features of leaf vestiture and fruit and cup morphology. Attempts to identify these species mostly or solely on basis of leaf shape and dentition (as in many other oak species complexes) have resulted in a plethora of misidentified material in herbaria and erroneous reports in the literature. The closely appressed, asymmetric trichomes on the abaxial surface of the mature leaf, in combination with longer simple hairs along the midvein, are unique to Q. montana among North American species of Quercus. Immature leaves and densely shaded leaves sometimes exhibit a more erect trichome that could be confused with the longer, felty hairs of Q. michauxii, so it is important to evaluate mature sun leaves when possible.

(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
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. fusiformis, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. montana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. prinoides, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. vacciniifolia, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. fusiformis, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. prinoides, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. turbinella, Q. vacciniifolia, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Synonyms Q. dumosa var. turbinella, Q. subturbinella
Name authority Greene: Ill. W. Amer. Oaks 1: 37. (1889) Willdenow: Sp. Pl. 4(1): 440. (1805)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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