Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus phellos |
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huckleberry oak |
willow 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 30 m. Bark dark gray and smooth, becoming darker and irregularly fissured with age, inner bark light orange. |
Twigs | reddish brown, 1-2 mm diam., glabrous. |
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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 linear to narrowly elliptic, usually widest near middle, 50-120 × 10-25 mm, base acute, margins entire with 1 apical awn, apex acute; surfaces abaxially pale green, glabrous, rarely softly pubescent, adaxially light green, 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 shallowly saucer-shaped, 3-6.5 mm high × 7.5-11 mm wide, covering 1/4-1/3 nut, outer surface puberulent, inner surface light brown, pubescent, scale tips tightly appressed, acute; nut ovoid to hemispheric, 8-12 × 6.5-10 mm, often striate, glabrate, scar diam. 4.5-6 mm. |
Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
buds chestnut brown, ovoid, 2-4 mm, apex acute, glabrous. |
Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus phellos |
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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 | Of bottomland flood plains, also on stream banks, dunes, and terraces, and, occasionally, on poorly drained uplands |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 0-400 m (0-1300 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA
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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.) |
Individual trees with leaves softly pubescent abaxially may be classified as Quercus phellos forma intonsa Fernald; however, such leaves are known to occur on second-flush shoots from twigs bearing typical leaves. Quercus phellos reportedly hybridizes with Q. coccinea (W. W. Ashe 1894); with Q. ilicifolia (= Q. ×giffordi Trelease) and Q. incana (E. J. Palmer 1948); and with Q. marilandica, Q. nigra, Q. pagoda (= Q. ×ludoviciana Sargent), Q. palustris, Q. rubra, Q. shumardii, and Q. velutina. D. M. Hunt (1989) cited evidence of hybridization also with Q. hemisphaerica, Q. imbricaria, Q. laurifolia, and Q. pumila. (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) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 994. (1753) |
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