Flora of North America species comparison

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Quercus vacciniifolia

Quercus prinoides

huckleberry oak

dwarf chestnut oak, dwarf Chinkapin oak, dwarf chinquapin oak, scrub chestnut oak
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, deciduous, (0.5-)1-3(-5, 10?) m, sometimes spreading-rhizomatous.
Bark

gray, thin, flaky to papery.
Twigs

brownish, 1.5-3(-4) mm diam., sparsely fine-pubescent, soon becoming glabrate, graying in 2d year.
Buds

brown to red-brown, subrotund to broadly ovoid, 1-3 mm, apex rounded, very sparsely pubescent.
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 lanceolate to oblanceolate or usually obovate, 40-140 × 20-60(-80) mm, leathery, base truncate to cuneate, margins regularly undulate, toothed or shallow-lobed, teeth usually acute, sometimes rounded, or acute-acuminate, often strongly antrorse, secondary veins usually 5-8(-9) on each side, ± parallel, apex short-acute to acuminate;

surfaces abaxially glaucous or light green, appearing glabrate, with scattered or crowded minute, appressed, symmetric, 6-10-rayed, stellate hairs, adaxially lustrous dark green, 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 or on axillary peduncle to 3-8 mm;

cup deeply or shallowly cup-shaped, 9-12 mm deep × 13-17(-22) mm wide, enclosing 1/4-1/3 nut, base rounded, margin usually thin, scales rather tightly appressed, moderately tuberculate, uniformly short gray-pubescent;

nut light brown, oblong to ovoid, (13-)15-20 × 10-13 mm.
Cotyledons

distinct.
Terminal

buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins.

Quercus vacciniifolia

Quercus prinoides
Phenology Flowering in early summer. Flowering in spring.
Habitat Dry ridges, steep slopes, and rocky areas from montane coniferous zone to near treeline Pine barrens, scrublands, forest margins, prairies, and exposed ridges, on deep sands or dry shale, rarely reported on calcareous soils
Elevation 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) 0-500 m (0-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NV; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MI; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WV; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Some reports of Quercus prinoides growing in calcareous soils are probably referable to shrub forms of Q. muhlenbergii.

The debate over whether Quercus prinoides is distinct from Q. muhlenbergii has continued for most of the last century. Little doubt can exist that strong genetic differences, as expressed by characteristics of habit, leaf form, and habitat preference, separate the two taxa; the question is merely whether they are best treated as subspecies or varieties or as separate species. Over most of the eastern United States, the two taxa occur sympatrically over broad areas with little immediate contact (syntopy), because Q. muhlenbergii is found on calcareous soils and Q. prinoides occurs on sands (often acidic) and dry shales. Seedlings of Q. prinoides can flower and produce acorns in as few as 3-5 years from planting, when only 20-50 cm, and maintain their dwarf, clonal habit in cultivation. Quercus muhlenbergii begins fruiting as a small tree of 3 m or more in height. Because of these differences, and interdigitating geographic distributions, the two taxa seem to be similar in pattern of variation and interaction to other closely related oak species of eastern North America, and dissimilar in pattern to infraspecific taxa such as we see in Q. sinuata var. sinuata and Q. sinuata var. breviloba. The populations that are difficult to determine are usually small scrubby trees, probably mostly Q. muhlenbergii, stunted because of less than favorable moisture conditions, with or without indications of introgression from Q. prinoides.

Material of Quercus prinoides from Long Island, coastal Massachusetts, Nantucket Island, and Martha's Vineyard has been segregated as Q. prinoides Willdenow var. rufescens Rehder on the basis of vestiture and minor differences in leaf form. These populations have appressed-stellate leaf pubescence abaxially, as throughout the range of the species; in addition they have reddish, erect, fasiculate hairs similar to those found in Q. michauxii. The hairs make the abaxial leaf surface somewhat felty to the touch. Variability in this characteristic and lack of other consistently correlated features preclude taxonomic recognition of Q. prinoides var. rufescens, but this problem is worthy of further investigation.

(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
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. fusiformis, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. montana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. prinoides, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. turbinella, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Q. acerifolia, Q. agrifolia, Q. ajoensis, Q. alba, Q. arizonica, Q. arkansana, Q. austrina, Q. berberidifolia, Q. bicolor, Q. boyntonii, Q. buckleyi, Q. carmenensis, Q. chapmanii, Q. chihuahuensis, Q. chrysolepis, Q. coccinea, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. depressipes, Q. douglasii, Q. dumosa, Q. durata, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. emoryi, Q. engelmannii, Q. falcata, Q. fusiformis, Q. gambelii, Q. garryana, Q. geminata, Q. georgiana, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, Q. grisea, Q. havardii, Q. hemisphaerica, Q. hinckleyi, Q. hypoleucoides, Q. ilicifolia, Q. imbricaria, Q. incana, Q. inopina, Q. intricata, Q. john-tuckeri, Q. kelloggii, Q. laceyi, Q. laevis, Q. laurifolia, Q. lobata, Q. lyrata, Q. macrocarpa, Q. margarettae, Q. marilandica, Q. michauxii, Q. minima, Q. mohriana, Q. montana, Q. muehlenbergii, Q. myrtifolia, Q. nigra, Q. oblongifolia, Q. oglethorpensis, Q. pacifica, Q. pagoda, Q. palmeri, Q. palustris, Q. phellos, Q. polymorpha, Q. pumila, Q. pungens, Q. robur, Q. robusta, Q. rubra, Q. rugosa, Q. sadleriana, Q. shumardii, Q. similis, Q. sinuata, Q. stellata, Q. tardifolia, Q. texana, Q. tomentella, Q. toumeyi, Q. turbinella, Q. vacciniifolia, Q. vaseyana, Q. velutina, Q. viminea, Q. virginiana, Q. wislizenii
Synonyms Q. prinoides var. rufescens
Name authority Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) Willdenow: in G. H. E. Muhlenberg, Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Neue Schriften 3: 397. (1801)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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