Quercus vacciniifolia

Last updated

Huckleberry oak
Quercus vaccinifolia 1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Genus: Quercus
Subgenus: Quercus subg. Quercus
Section: Quercus sect. Protobalanus
Species:
Q. vacciniifolia
Binomial name
Quercus vacciniifolia
Synonyms [2] [3]
  • Quercus vaccinifoliaKellogg
  • Quercus vaccinifoliaKellogg, not validly published
  • Quercus chrysolepis var. vacciniifolia(Kellogg) Engelm.
  • Quercus chrysolepis subsp. vacciniifolia(Kellogg) A.E.Murray

Quercus vacciniifolia (sometimes spelled Q. vaccinifolia), the huckleberry oak, is a member of the Protobalanus section of genus Quercus . [4] It has evergreen foliage, short styles, very bitter acorns that mature in 18 months, and a woolly acorn shell interior.

Contents

Description

Quercus vacciniifolia is a shrubby evergreen of the oak family, which grows generally less than 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall and spreads horizontally, never becoming a tree. In the field, it is best identified from its clustered terminal buds, which is characteristic of all plants of the genus. Species are more easily identified in the presence of acorns. Acorns of Q. vacciniifolia mature in 2 years (biennial maturation) after pollination. Flowers and inflorescence characteristics are not used to significant extend in this genera. Q. vacciniifolia can be easily confused with Q. cedrosensis , which grows in dry chaparrals, such as California-Mexico border south, forests of Baja California and at higher elevations on Cedros Island. [5] Morphologically, the two species differ in their leaf margins: while Q. vacciniifolia leaves are entire to mucro-toothed, Q. cedrosensis leaves are entire or have irregular spine-tipped teeth. [5] [6]

Distribution and habitat

Quercus vacciniifolia is native to the western United States, where it can be found in the Sierra Nevada of California, where its distribution extends just into Nevada, and the Klamath Mountains and southern Cascade Range as far north as southern Oregon. It grows in high mountain forests. It also dominates sections of mountain chaparral. [7] [8] [9]

The species can be found in steep slopes, ridges, conifer forests, and sub-alpine forest, mostly in high montane area at altitudes of 150 to 2,930 m (490 to 9,610 ft). [10] It is native to California, but can also be found in Oregon and Nevada. Hybridization between Q. vacciniifolia and Q. chrysolepis has been extensively reported in Sierra Nevada. [5] Between the early and middle Holocene, 11,000 and 5,000 cal years BP, Q. vacciniifolia were an extensive shrub in the Klamath Mountains (at the northern portions of California), which had ultramafic soils. At this period, Q. vacciniifolia was a main fire developer due to its abundance, mid-height and resinous leaves. Today, Q. vacciniifolia rarely forms dense chaparral-like stands, allowing fire resistant species to grow intermittently. [11]

Ecology

Many animal species use this shrub for food, including mule deer, which eat the leaves, and many birds and mammals, including the American black bear, which eat the acorns. [7]

Uses

The Quercus vacciniifolia plant is used in restoration, revegetation, and garden landscaping. It is good for preventing erosion, such as on the slopes above Lake Tahoe to slow the erosion that pollutes the lake. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Quercus kelloggii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus kelloggii, the California black oak or Kellogg oak, is an oak in the red oak section native to western North America. Although genetically separated from them for more than 20 million years, its leaves are remarkably similar in appearance to several other members of the red oak section including the red oak and the black oak found in eastern and central North America.

<i>Quercus agrifolia</i> Evergreen oak tree native to California

Quercus agrifolia, the California live oak, or coast live oak, is an evergreen live oak native to the California Floristic Province. Live oaks are so-called because they keep living leaves on the tree all year, adding young leaves and shedding dead leaves simultaneously rather than dropping dead leaves en masse in the autumn like a true deciduous tree. Coast live oaks may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is generally a medium-sized tree. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section of oaks.

<i>Quercus wislizeni</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus wislizeni, known by the common name interior live oak, is an evergreen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in many areas of California in the United States continuing south into northern Baja California in Mexico. It generally occurs in foothills, being most abundant in the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada, but also widespread in the Pacific Coast Ranges—where since 1980 it has been known as a separate species Quercus parvula—and the San Gabriel Mountains. It was named for its collector, Friedrich Adolph Wislizenus (1810–1889).

<i>Quercus douglasii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus douglasii, known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the blue oak woodland ecosystem. It is occasionally known as mountain oak and iron oak.

<i>Quercus engelmannii</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus engelmannii, the Engelmann oak or Pasadena oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section, native to southern California and northwestern Baja California, Mexico.

<i>Holodiscus discolor</i> Species of flowering plant

Holodiscus discolor, commonly known as ocean spray or oceanspray, creambush, or ironwood, is a shrub of western North America.

<i>Quercus berberidifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Fagaceae

Quercus berberidifolia, the California scrub oak, is a small evergreen or semi-evergreen shrubby oak in the white oak section of Quercus. It is a native of the scrubby hills of California, and is a common member of chaparral ecosystems.

<i>Quercus lobata</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus lobata, commonly called the valley oak or roble, is the largest of the California oaks. It is endemic to the state, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou to San Diego counties. Deciduous, it requires year-round groundwater, and may live up to 600 years. Its thick, ridged bark and deeply lobed leaves are characteristic, and assist in identification.

<i>Quercus chrysolepis</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus chrysolepis, commonly termed canyon live oak, canyon oak, golden cup oak or maul oak, is a North American species of evergreen oak that is found in Mexico and in the western United States, notably in the California Coast Ranges. This tree is often found near creeks and drainage swales growing in moist cool microhabitats. Its leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with prominent spines; a further identification arises from the leaves of canyon live oak being geometrically flat.

<i>Quercus durata</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus durata, commonly known as leather oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The common name "leather oak" is derived from the leathery texture on the lop of its leaves. Taxonomically it is placed in the white oak group.

<i>Salix lasiolepis</i> Species of willow

Salix lasiolepis is a species of willow native to western North America.

<i>Quercus dumosa</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus dumosa is a species of plant in the family Fagaceae, belonging to the white oak section of the oak genus (Quercus). This tree goes by the common names coastal sage scrub oak and Nuttall's scrub oak.

<i>Allium yosemitense</i> Species of flowering plant

Allium yosemitense is a California species of wild onion known by the common name Yosemite onion. Most of the known populations are situated within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park.

<i>Quercus sadleriana</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus sadleriana is a species of oak known by the common names Sadler's oak and deer oak. It is native to southwestern Oregon and far northern California in the Klamath Mountains. It grows in coniferous forests. It is placed in section Ponticae.

<i>Quercus cornelius-mulleri</i> Species of tree

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Muller oak, or Muller's oak. It was described to science in 1981 when it was segregated from the Quercus dumosa complex and found to warrant species status of its own. It was named after ecologist Cornelius Herman Muller. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in chaparral, oak woodlands, and other habitat in foothills and mountains. It can most easily be observed in Joshua Tree National Park and in the woodlands along the western margins of the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, California.

<i>Quercus john-tuckeri</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus john-tuckeri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Tucker oak, or Tucker's oak. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the chaparral and oak woodlands of mountain slopes in the western Transverse Ranges, the southernmost Central Coast Ranges, and the margins of the Mojave Desert. The species is named after John M. Tucker, professor of botany (1947–1986) at the University of California at Davis, specialist in Quercus.

<i>Quercus palmeri</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus palmeri is a species of oak known by the common name Palmer oak, or Palmer's oak. It is native to California, Baja California, Southern Nevada, and in Arizona through the transition zone to the eastern Mogollon Rim, where it grows in canyons, mountain slopes, washes, and other dry habitats.

<i>Quercus turbinella</i> Species of plant

Quercus turbinella is a North American species of oak known by the common names shruboak, turbinella oak, shrub live oak, and gray oak. It is native to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the western United States. It also occurs in northern Mexico.

<i>Quercus pacifica</i> Species of oak tree

Quercus pacifica is a species of oak known by the common names island scrub oak, Channel Island scrub oak, and Pacific oak.

<i>Berberis dictyota</i> Species of shrub

Berberis dictyota, now reclassified as Berberis aquifolium var. dictyota, with the common names Jepson's oregon grape and shining netvein barberry, is a flowering plant in the Barberry family.

References

  1. Wenzell , K.; Kenny, L. (2016). "Quercus vacciniifolia". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  2. "Quercus vacciniifolia Kellogg". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  3. "Quercus vaccinifolia Kellogg". Tropicos . Missouri Botanical Garden.
  4. Denk, Thomas; Grimm, Guido W.; Manos, Paul S.; Deng, Min & Hipp, Andrew L. (2017). "Appendix 2.1: An updated infrageneric classification of the oaks" (xls). figshare. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  5. 1 2 3 Kevin C. Nixon (2002) The Oak (Quercus) Biodiversity of California and Adjacent Regions, USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-184.
  6. Nixon, Kevin C. (1997). "Quercus vaccinifolia". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  7. 1 2 3 Howard, Janet L. (1992). "Quercus vacciniifolia". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  8. "Quercus vacciniifolia". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  9. "Quercus vacciniifolia". Calflora. Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database.
  10. Rosatti, Thomas J.; Tucker, John M. (2014). "Quercus vacciniifolia". In Jepson Flora Project (ed.). Jepson eFlora. The Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley.
  11. R. Scott Anderson. Holocene Forest Development and Paleoclimates within the Central Sierra Nevada, California. (1990) Journal of Ecology (1990), 78. p470-489.