Coast Live Oak- Quercus agrifolia - with shiny, evergreen prickly leaves, that are usually rolled under. Not too fun to play around if you are barefoot. This oak is very drought tolerant, looks nice all year, and grows fairly quickly for an oak. Coast Live Oak will grow up high on the hillsides in central California (in the draws where there is more moisture). Under stress (drought, insects, diseases, etc.) the leaves will roll under and even fall off. No stress and the leaves are flat (like Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizenii, BUT, for all oaks a little stress is good! Flat- leaved Coast Live Oaks are more susceptible to SOD (sudden oak death) or other diseases.
Sometimes the interior form of Coast Live Oak is identified as Quercus agrifolia var. oxyadenia. The leaves on this form have fuzzy veins under the leaf. Not very uniform though, and many times the interior trees are missing the fuzz, while many times the coastal trees will be the fuzz (they're undercover).
Coast Live Oak- Quercus agrifolia
Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) acorns vary from short fat stubby ones that seem to be all cap, into the monsters shown here. We even have a tree in the area that bears crescent shaped ones that are longer than an inch and only a quarter inch wide and look kinda like a fish hook.
Quercus x chasei is a natural hybrid of Coast Live Oak (Q. agrifolia) with Black Oak (Q. kelloggii) that occurs from Monterey to Santa Clara counties.
Quercus x ganderi is a natural hybrid that occurs in the San Diego area between the interior form of Coast Live Oak (Q. agrifolia var. oxyadenia) and Black Oak (Q. kelloggii).
Quercus
dumosa (berberidifolia) is the most
messed -with tree in the state. The botanists have divided up the
species into all sorts of forms, most of which exist on the
hillsides of both nursies. McMinn said it in 1939 “ Several
varieties of this species have been described, but the characters
used in attempting to distingish them fail when specimens
collected throughout the range of this polymorphic species are
examined.” Amen.
Quercus
xacutidens
It seems that every few years a budding botanist blunders out of his or her ivory tower and discovers that there are bushy oaks outside. Now these oaks do not key in the floras easily (keying is wandering through a flora's (a book) selection process that is supposed to be based primarily on reproductive parts of the plant). So, Mister or Ms. hot shot botanist writes a paper describing his or her “new” oak. Every time a 'new' oak is described it leads to more confusion and more 'new' oaks. These oaks below should probably all be considered various forms of Scrub Oak ( Quercus dumosa).
Quercus Xacutidens
Quercus berberidifolia- new name for Q. dumosa, given to new plants that are supposed to only occur in San Diego but are elsewhere. The landscape trade only recognizes old Q. dumosa, so in the name of 'restoration' the gene pool is being replanted with oaks from all over the state.
Quercus cornelius-mulleri (Very much like Q. john tuckeri or Q. xalvordiana. A wonderfully clean beautiful small tree. I actually figured this one out once.)
Quercus dumosa var. elegantula
Quercus durata var. gabrielensis (let's see you separate Q.durata from Q. dumosa by leaf roll, and this form has no leaf roll; maybe it's Q. dumosa?)
Quercus grandidentata (Q. engelmannii X Q. dumosa)
Quercus xhowellii (Q. dumosa X Q. garryana)
Q. john tuckeri (Q. turbinella var. californica) probably was originally a hybrid between Q. douglasii and Q. dumosa
Quercus X kinselae (Q. dumosa X Q. lobata)
Quercus X macdonaldii (Q. dumosa X Q. lobata)
Quercus X townei (Q. dumosa X Q. lobata)
Quercus dumosa var. turbinella
AND, the live oaks have dwarf forms that can also mimic Quercus dumosa.
Quercus
x alvordiana looks like what it probably is, a Blue Oak
crossed with a Scrub Oak.(Quercus douglasii X Quercus dumosa)
Some forms of Quercus dumosa (Q. berberidifolia) looks very much like a dwarf Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) or Interior Live Oak (Quercus wislizenii).
Q.
john tuckeri (old name: Quercus turbinella ssp. californica) is
like a Q. dumosa but with fuzz on the top of the leaf. But, then
sometimes it's like an evergreen Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii).
You can't even say all scrub oaks are scrubby. Some can become small trees with 12” diameter trunks and rarely a size of 30 feet. While others (many times on the same slope) reach a maximum height of six feet.
The floras make it sound easy to figure out the Quercus xalvordiana, Q. dumosa, Q. john tuckeri (or Q. turbinella), and all the other 'new' forms of Quercus dumosa. Isn't so. They morph even into a Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii). Some of the deciduous blue oaks (Quercus douglasii) look exactly like a Tucker's Oak (Quercus john tuckeri), some of the Quercus dumosa look to be hybrids with Quercus agrifolia (Coast Live Oak), some hybrids of Q. dumosa and Q. lobata (Valley Oak) exist, some of the blue oaks do not go deciduous and key to Q. john tuckeri but appear to be blue oaks in all other aspects.
A
Tucker's Oak (Q. john tuckeri) going deciduous.
An evergreen blue oak that will key to Tucker's Oak (Q. john tuckeri).
Leather
Oak (Quercus durata) is one of the many scrub oaks. The
rolled leaf edges on a small tree, almost shrub, is the key. Use
as a dwarf oak or as a 'tree' in a miniature forest.
Deer Oak (Quercus sadleriana). This oak grows in lush northern California shady or wet forests.
