Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus berberidifolia |
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huckleberry oak |
California scrub oak, inland scrub oak, scrub oak |
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Habit | Shrubs, low spreading to often prostrate, to 1.5 m. Twigs branching at 45° angles or less, reddish brown, 1-1.5 mm diam., flexible, glabrous to sparsely pubesent. | Shrubs, subevergreen, 1-2(-4) m. Bark gray, scaly. |
Twigs | gray, yellowish, rarely reddish, 1-3 mm diam. |
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Buds | reddish brown, globose or ovoid, 2-3 mm, minutely puberulent. |
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Leaves | blade oblong-ovate, 10-35 × 7-15 mm, flat, thin, leathery, base slightly rounded to acute, secondary veins inconspicuous, 6-8 pairs, branching at 45-60° angles, with weakly thickened cell walls, margins entire or indistinctly and irregularly mucronately toothed, apex acute or rarely obtuse; surfaces abaxially whitish green with waxy layer, glabrous or slightly pubescent with stellate hairs, adaxially dull gray-green, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with stellate hairs. |
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 rarely paired; cup shallowly saucer-shaped to slightly turbinate, 3-4 mm deep × 10-15 mm wide, scales appressed, slightly embedded, moderately silvery brown-pubescent; nut ovoid, 8-17 × 5-10 mm, apex acute; nut scar to 3 mm diam. |
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. |
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Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus berberidifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering in early summer. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Dry ridges, steep slopes, and rocky areas from montane coniferous zone to near treeline | Chaparral, margins of coastal sage scrub |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 100-1800 m (300-5900 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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CA
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Discussion | Typical high-elevation populations in the Sierra Nevada of California can be distinguished from all shrubby forms of Quercus chrysolepis by the absence of glandular trichomes and by thin cups with small nut-attachment scars. At lower elevations in northern California and southwestern Oregon, secondary contact with Q. chrysolepis has resulted in the formation of hybrids. (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. Protobalanus | Fagaceae > Quercus > sect. Quercus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Q. agrifolia var. berberidifolia, Q. dumosa var. munita | |
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | Liebmann: Overs. Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Forh. Medlemmers Arbeider 1854: 172. (1854) |
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