Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus carmenensis |
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huckleberry oak |
Mexican 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 or trees, deciduous, shrubs 0.5-2 m, rhizomatous, trees (on better sites) to 12 m, trunk 0.75 m diam. |
Bark | light gray, checkered or furrowed. |
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Twigs | often strikingly red, 1-1.5 mm diam., sparingly (rarely densely) stellate-pubescent, somewhat glabrescent and gray 2d year. |
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Buds | light brown, nearly round, 1-1.5 mm, indumentum similar to twigs. |
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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 obovate or narrowly obovate, (20-)30-50 × 10-30 mm, thin to moderately leathery, base cuneate to rounded, margins shallowly and irregularly lobed or coarsely toothed in distal 1/2, rarely subentire, teeth mucronate, secondary veins 9-12 on each side, branching or passing directly to teeth, apex acute, sometimes broadly rounded; surfaces abaxially light green or yellow-green, prominently pubescent with minute, erect velvety hairs, adaxially surfaces dark green, sparsely and minutely stellate-pubescent. |
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 or short-pedunculate (immature); cup (mature) unknown; scales (immature) light brown, tip acute, canescent. |
Cotyledons | unknown. |
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Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
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Nut | unknown. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus carmenensis |
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Phenology | Flowering in early summer. | |
Habitat | Dry ridges, steep slopes, and rocky areas from montane coniferous zone to near treeline | Shrublands and woodlands on limestone |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 2200-2500 m (7200-8200 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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TX; Mexico (Coahuila) |
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.) |
Of conservation concern. Shrublands and woodlands on limestone; of conservation concern; 2200-2500 m; Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila). Quercus carmenensis is known in the United States from only one collection from the Chisos Mountains, Texas; otherwise, it is known in the Sierra del Carmen region, Coahuila, Mexico. (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 | ||
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | C. H. Muller: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 18: 847. (1937) |
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