Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus vaseyana |
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huckleberry oak |
sandpaper oak, Vasey 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, evergreen or subevergreen, to 10 m. Bark dark brown, furrowed and exfoliating in long strips. |
Twigs | reddish or grayish brown, 1-1.5 mm diam., short stellate-tomentose or tomentulose, later glabrate or persistently pubescent, rarely glabrous. |
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Buds | dark red-brown or gray, round-ovoid, 1-1.5 mm, apex obtuse, sparsely pubescent or glabrate. |
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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 narrowly lanceolate to usually oblong, mostly planar or slightly convex, 20-60(-90) × 10-20 mm, often rather leathery, base cuneate to rounded, margins coarsely 3-5-toothed on each side or shallowly lobed or entire, with teeth or lobes acute or obtuse, mucronate-tipped, secondary veins 4-6 on each side, usually branched, apex acute, rarely obtuse; surfaces abaxially densely stellate with minute appressed hairs, rarely glabrate and lustrous green, adaxially dark green, lustrous, glabrous or very sparsely stellate-puberulent. |
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. |
subsessile or on peduncle 2-3 mm; cup saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, 3-4 mm deep × 10 mm wide, margin thin, scales reddish brown, strongly, regularly tuberculate; nut light brown, ovoid to oblong or subcylindric, to 12 × 12 mm, glabrous. |
Cotyledons | distinct. |
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Terminal | buds conic, 2.5 mm, scales brown with ciliate margins. |
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Quercus vacciniifolia |
Quercus vaseyana |
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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 | Dry limestone slopes, oak and mesquite woodlands, juniper woodlands, and canyons and ravines in otherwise dry, open grasslands, sometimes descending into margins of dry scrub |
Elevation | 900-2800 m (3000-9200 ft) | 300-600 m (1000-2000 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR
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TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León) |
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.) |
Apparent hybridization between Quercus vaseyana and Q. pungens is discussed under the latter species. (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. pungens var. vaseyana, Q. undulata var. vaseyana | |
Name authority | Hittell: Resources Calif. 101. (1863) — (as vaccinifolia) | Buckley: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 10: 91. (1883) |
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