Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus imbricaria |
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huckleberry oak |
shingle 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. | Trees, deciduous, to 20 m. Bark grayish brown, fissures and ridges shallow, inner bark pinkish. |
Twigs | greenish brown to brown, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., glabrous or sparsely pubescent. |
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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 ovate or elliptic to obovate, usually widest near middle, 80-200 × 15-75 mm, base obtuse to cuneate, occasionally rounded, margins entire with 1 apical awn, apex acute to obtuse; surfaces abaxially uniformly pubescent, adaxially lustrous, glabrous. |
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. |
biennial; cup deeply saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, 5-9 mm high × 10-18 mm wide, covering 1/3-1/2 nut, outer surface puberulent, inner surface light brown to reddish brown and glabrous or with a few hairs around nut scar, scale tips tightly appressed, acute; nut ovoid to subglobose, 9-18 × 10-18 mm, often striate, having 1 or more indistinct rings of minute pits at apex, glabrate, scar diam. 5-9 mm. |
Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
buds brown to reddish brown, ovoid, 3-6 mm, distinctly 5-angled in cross section, scales minutely ciliate on margins. |
2n | = 24. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus imbricaria |
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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 | Moderately dry to mesic slopes and uplands, occasionally in ravines and bottoms |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 100-700 m (300-2300 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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AR; DC; DE; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MI; MO; NC; NJ; OH; PA; TN; TX; VA; WV
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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 wood of Quercus imbricaria was once an important source of shingles, hence its common name. The Cherokee used the bark of Quercus imbricaria to treat indigestion, chronic dysentery, mouth sores, chapped skin, general sores, chills and fevers, lost voice, milky urine, and as an antiseptic and a general tonic (D. E. Moerman 1986). This species reportedly hybridizes with Q. coccinea (W. H. Wagner Jr. and D. J. Schoen 1976); with Q. falcata (producing Q. ×anceps E. J. Palmer) and Q. ilicifolia (D. M. Hunt 1989); with Q. marilandica, Q. palustris, and Q. phellos (H. A. Gleason 1952); and with Q. rubra, Q. shumardii, and Q. velutina. (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. Lobatae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | Michaux: Hist. Chênes Amér., no. 9, plates 15, 16. (1801) |
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