Biology:Quercus turbinella
| Quercus turbinella | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Fagaceae |
| Genus: | Quercus |
| Subgenus: | Quercus subg. Quercus |
| Section: | Quercus sect. Quercus |
| Species: | Q. turbinella
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| Binomial name | |
| Quercus turbinella Greene
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Quercus turbinella is a North American species of oak known by the common names shrub oak, turbinella oak, shrub live oak, and gray oak.[3][4][5] It is native to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the western United States.[3] It also occurs in northern Mexico.[6]
Description
Quercus turbinella is a shrub growing 2–5 metres (6 1⁄2–16 1⁄2 feet) in height but sometimes becoming treelike and exceeding 6 m (20 ft). The branches are gray or brown, the twigs often coated in short woolly fibers when young and becoming scaly with age. The thick, leathery evergreen leaves are up to 3 centimetres (1 1⁄4 inches) long by 2 cm (3⁄4 in) wide and are edged with large, spine-tipped teeth. They are gray-green to yellowish in color and waxy in texture on the upper surfaces, and yellowish and hairy or woolly and glandular on the lower surfaces. The males catkins are yellowish-green and the female flowers are in short spikes in the leaf axils, appearing at the same time as the new growth of leaves. The fruit is a yellowish brown acorn up to two centimeters long with a shallow warty cup about a centimeter wide.[6] This oak reproduces sexually via its acorns if there is enough moisture present, but more often it reproduces vegetatively by sprouting from its rhizome and root crown.[5][3]
Distribution
Quercus turbinella has been found in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, southern California , and western Texas , as well as Baja California.[7][4] In California, it occurs in the New York mountains and a few eastern California desert ranges. The populations on the desert mountains in the western Mojave desert and the inner coastal ranges are now considered Quercus john-tuckeri.[8][9] It grows in woodland, chaparral, forest, and other habitat. It is most common in chaparral habitat in central Arizona,[5] through the transition zone of the Mogollon Rim–White Mountains, but also southeast Arizona in the Madrean Sky Island mountain ranges of sky islands.[10]
Ecology
Quercus turbinella easily hybridizes with other oak species, including Quercus gambelii, Q. havardii, Q. arizonica, and Q. grisea.[5] Many species of animals use it for food, with wild and domesticated ungulates browsing the foliage and many birds and mammals eating the acorns.[5] Animals also use the shrub as cover, and mountain lions hide their kills in the thickets.[5]
See also
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quercus turbinella. |
- ↑ Beckman, E. (2016). "Quercus turbinella". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T194242A2305742. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T194242A2305742.en. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/194242/2305742. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ↑ "Quercus turbinella Greene". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew). http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-175590.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Nixon, Kevin C. (1997), "Quercus turbinella", in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA), 3, New York and Oxford, http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501092
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Quercus turbinella", Calflora: Information on California plants for education, research and conservation, with data contributed by public and private institutions and individuals, including the Consortium of California Herbaria, Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database, https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-taxon=Quercus+turbinella
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Tirmenstein, D. (1999), Quercus turbinella, US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/quetur/all.html
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Virginia Tech: Shrub live oak
- ↑ "Quercus turbinella", County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA) (Biota of North America Program (BONAP)), 2014, http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Quercus%20turbinella.png
- ↑ Calflora
- ↑ SEINet, Southwestern Biodiversity, Arizona chapter photos, description, interactive distribution map
- ↑ Little Jr., Elbert L. (1976). Atlas of United States Trees. 3 (Minor Western Hardwoods). US Government Printing Office. OCLC 4053799.
External links
Wikidata ☰ Q3006230 entry
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