Quercus vaseyana

Copyright: Flora of North America Association

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. Buds dark redbrown or gray, round-ovoid, 1-1.5 mm, apex obtuse, sparsely pubescent or glabrate. Leaves: petiole to 5 mm. Leaf-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 subsessile or on peduncle 2-3 mm; cup saucer-shaped to cupshaped, 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.

Phenology: Flowering spring.
Habitat: 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: 300-600 m

Tex., Mexico (Chihuahua), Mexico (Coahuila), Mexico (and Nuevo León)

Discussion

Apparent hybridization between Quercus vaseyana and Q. pungens is discussed under the latter species.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa