Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus toumeyi |
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huckleberry oak |
Toumey oak, Toumey'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 or small trees, deciduous or subevergreen. |
Bark | dark gray to almost black, scaly. |
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Twigs | brownish, 1-2 mm, usually persistently pubescent. |
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Buds | reddish brown, ovoid, ca. 1 mm. |
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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 oblong-elliptic or lanceolate, 15-25(-30) × (6-)8-12(-15) mm, base obtuse or cuneate, rarely subcordate, margins strongly cartilaginous, entire, sometimes sparsely mucronate-dentate toward apex, secondary veins 7-8 on each side, apex acute, sometimes rounded; surfaces abaxially dull gray, microscopically pubescent with long, soft, white or yellow hairs concentrated in tufts along midvein and base, adaxially glossy green, sparsely minutely stellate-pubescent or 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 peduncle 2 mm; cup cup-shaped, 6 mm deep × ca. 8-9 mm wide, enclosing ca. 1/3 nut, scales moderately tuberculate; nut light brown, narrowly ovoid or elliptic, 8-15 × 6-8 mm. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus toumeyi |
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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 | Rocky slopes, oak woodlands, and open chaparral |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua and Sonora)
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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.) |
Quercus toumeyi, particularly the more spinescent-leaved form, is often confused with Q. turbinella. The latter species has acorns on peduncles greater than 10 mm, and more or less evenly distributed minute, flat, stellate trichomes on the abaxial leaf surface, in contrast to the subsessile acorns and longer straight hairs along the midvein of the abaxial leaf surface in Q. toumeyi. (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. hartmanii | |
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | Sargent: Gard. & Forest 8: 92. (1895) |
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