Quercus john-tuckeri

Tucker's oak
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Genus: Quercus
Species: Q. john-tuckeri
Binomial name
Quercus john-tuckeri
Nixon & C.H.Mull.

Quercus john-tuckeri is a species of oak known by the common name Tucker oak, or Tucker's oak. Previously known as Quercus turbinella ssp. californica, it was elevated to species status in 1994.[1] 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.

Description

Quercus john-tuckeri is a bushy shrub growing 2 to 5 meters in maximum height, sometimes becoming treelike, exceeding six meters. The branches are gray or brown, the twigs coated in short woolly fibers when new and becoming scaly with age. The evergreen leaves are leathery and thick, sometimes brittle. They are gray-green in color, the lower surface slightly paler. The undersides are hairy, the upper surfaces somewhat less so. The leaf blade is roughly oval, spine-toothed, and less than 4 centimeters long. The fruit is an acorn with a thin cap 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide and a nut 2 to 3 centimeters long.

References

  1. ↑ Nixon, K. C. and C. H. Muller. (1994). New names in California oaks. Novon 4:4 391-93.

External links