Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus john-tuckeri |
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huckleberry oak |
desert scrub oak, Tucker oak, Tucker's 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 or evergreen, 1-3(-5) m. Bark light gray or brown, scaly. |
Twigs | yellowish or dingy gray, 1-1.5(-2) mm diam., densely tomentulose. |
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Buds | brown, ovoid or globose, 1.5-2(-3) mm, glabrous except for ciliate margins of scales; proximal scales often yellowish 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 unicolored, elliptic or obovate, (10-)15-30(-40) × (8-)10-15(-20) mm, thick and leathery, often brittle, base truncate or rounded-attenuate, rarely subcordate, margins irregularly spinose-toothed, occasionally shallowly lobate, secondary veins (3-)4-7, often some veins branching near margin and passing into more than 1 tooth, apex acute or rounded; surfaces abaxially waxy grayish, light green, or yellowish, sparse to moderately dense (8-)10-12-rayed, (loosely) appressed-stellate hairs, often 0.2-0.5 mm diam., and sparse to crowded, yellowish, glandular hairs, adaxially dull grayish, with stellate hairs, similar to abaxial surface. |
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 cup-shaped or obconic to hemispheric, 5-7 mm deep × 10-15 mm wide, thin, scales whitish or yellowish, moderately or scarcely tuberculate, puberulent; nut fusiform, ovoid, or conic, 20-30 mm, apex acute. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus john-tuckeri |
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Phenology | Flowering in early summer. | |
Habitat | Dry ridges, steep slopes, and rocky areas from montane coniferous zone to near treeline | Dry slopes, chaparral, pinyon and juniper woodlands, margins of oak woodlands and sagebrush |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 900-2000 m (3000-6600 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.) |
Dry slopes, chaparral, pinyon and juniper woodlands, margins of oak woodlands and sagebrush; 900-2000 m; Calif. Endemic to California, Quercus john-tuckeri occurs from Los Angeles County northward in the interior Coast Ranges and Sierra Foothills to the northern edge of Sacramento Valley. Quercus john-tuckeri bears some resemblance to both Q. turbinella and Q. berberidifolia. Quercus turbinella has pedunculate fruit and cordate leaf bases, however, and Q. berberidifolia has a glabrate adaxial leaf surface, substantially smaller stellate trichomes with fewer rays on the abaxial leaf surface, heavier tuberculate acorn cups, and blunt or rounded (instead of acute) acorns. (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. turbinella subsp. californica | |
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | Nixon & C. H. Muller: Novon 4: 391. (1994) |
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