You are here
Quercus taxonomy
Quercus montana Willd.
EOL Text
Rocky upland forest, dry ridges, mixed deciduous forests on shallow soils; 0-1400m.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501064 |
The name Quercus prinus Linnaeus is often applied to this species, particularly in the forestry literature, and in many regional floras. In a number of works, however, Q . prinus has been applied to the species here treated as Q . michauxii . Following the recommendations of J. W. Hardin (1979), because of the persistent confusion in the application of the name Q . prinus and uncertainty regarding the identity of the Linnean type materials, the names Q . montana and Q . michauxii should be used for the two species that have been variously called Q . prinus . Quercus prinus under this interpretation is a name of uncertain position.
The four species of the chestnut oak group in eastern North America ( Quercus montana , Q . michauxii , Q . muhlenbergii , and Q . prinoides ) are somewhat difficult to distinguish unless careful attention is paid to features of leaf vestiture and fruit and cup morphology. Attempts to identify these species mostly or solely on basis of leaf shape and dentition (as in many other oak species complexes) have resulted in a plethora of misidentified material in herbaria and erroneous reports in the literature. The closely appressed, asymmetric trichomes on the abaxial surface of the mature leaf, in combination with longer simple hairs along the midvein, are unique to Q . montana among North American species of Quercus . Immature leaves and densely shaded leaves sometimes exhibit a more erect trichome that could be confused with the longer, felty hairs of Q . michauxii , so it is important to evaluate mature sun leaves when possible.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501064 |
Chestnut oak is a major component in 2 forest cover types and an associated species in 10 others (8). Chestnut Oak (Society of American Foresters Type 44) is found primarily on dry south- and west-facing slopes, ridgetops, and rocky outcrops throughout the Appalachian Mountains at elevations from 450 to 1400 m (1,475 to 4,600 ft). Associated species in this type vary greatly by region, elevation, topographic position, and soils, and include other upland oaks (Quercus spp.) and hickories (Carya spp.); sweet birch (Betula lenta); yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera); blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica); sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua); black cherry (Prunus serotina); black walnut (Juglans nigra); red (Acer rubrum) and sugar (A. saccharum) maples; eastern redcedar (Juniperus uirginiana); eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis); and red (Pinus resinosa), eastern white (P. strobus), pitch (P. rigida), Table Mountain (P. pungens), shortleaf (P. echinata), Virginia (P. virginiana), and longleaf (P. palustris) pines. A variant of this type, chestnut oak-northern red oak, is found in disturbed forests in the Catskills in New York and on Massanutten Mountain in Virginia. The variant chestnut oak-scarlet oak is identified in the central Appalachians, while the variants chestnut oak-pitch pine, chestnut oak-eastern white pine-northern red oak, and chestnut oak-black oak-scarlet oak occur in the southern Appalachians.
White Pine-Chestnut Oak (Type 51) is found in the Appalachian region from West Virginia to Georgia. It is most common in southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina at elevations between 360 and 1100 m (1,200 and 3,600 ft). On the drier sites, common associated species include scarlet (Quercus coccinea), white (Q. alba), post (Q. stellata), and black (Q. velutina) oaks; hickories; blackgum; sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum); red maple; and pitch, Table Mountain, Virginia, and shortleaf pines. On more mesic sites, associated species include northern red (Quercus rubra) and white oaks, black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), yellow-poplar, sugar and red maples, and black cherry.
Chestnut oak is also an associated species in the following cover types: Eastern White Pine (Type 21); White Pine-Hemlock (Type 22); Red Maple (Type 108); Bear Oak (Type 43); White Oak-Black Oak-Northern Red Oak (Type 52) and its variants white oak-black oak-chestnut oak, black oak-scarlet oak-chestnut oak, and scarlet oak-chestnut oak; White Oak (Type 53); Black Oak (Type 110); Pitch Pine (Type 45) and its variant pitch pine-chestnut oak; Virginia Pine (Type 79); and Virginia Pine-Oak (Type 78).
Common shrub associates of chestnut oak include highbush and lowbush blueberry (Vaccinum corymbosum and V. angustifolium), dwarf chinkapin oak Quercus prinoides), and mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia).
Before the demise of American chestnut (Castanea dentata), chestnut oak was an important component of the Appalachian oak-chestnut forests. Since then, hickory, chestnut oak, northern red oak, and white oak have replaced American chestnut as these stands have gradually changed to oak-hickory stands (20).
Comments: This species is called Quercus montana in many floras. The name Quercus prinus is considered ambiguous by Flora North America vol. 3 (1997), possibly applying instead to the plant otherwise known as Q. michauxii. However, this name, Q. prinus, has never been formally rejected, and is applied by Kartesz to this taxon (LEM 6Dec93).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Quercus+prinus |
Because of its predominance on steep slopes and dry sites, chestnut oak has a higher incidence of fire damage and associated decay than other oaks throughout the Appalachians, although its inherent resistance to heartwood decay is greater than that of white, northern red, black, or scarlet oak. Chestnut oak is susceptible to most of the diseases of oaks including oak wilt (Ceratocystis fagacearum). It is particularly susceptible to the twig-blight fungus Diplodia longispora, a die-back and branch canker caused by Botryodiplodia spp., and, from Virginia northward, stem cankers caused by Nectria galligena and Strumella coryneoidea. The heartrot fungi Spongipellis pachyodon commonly occurs around dead branch stubs on chestnut oak in the southeast. Sprout rot, caused primarily by the heart rot fungi Stereum gausapatum, Fistulina hepatica, and Armillaria mellea, is common in chestnut oak stump sprouts that originate 5 cm (2 in) or more above the ground line, although the incidence of this rot is less in chestnut oak than in other oaks. The more important decay-causing fungi of chestnut oak in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois are Inonotus andersonii, Stereum gausapatum, Spongipellis pachyodon, Wolfiporia cocos, Inonotus dryophilus, Xylobolus frustulatus, Perenniporia compacta, and Armillaria mellea (3,13).
Chestnut oak and white oak are the two species most preferred by the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar). Other important defoliators of chestnut oak are the spring and fall cankerworms (Paleacrita Vernata and Alsophila pometaria), the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) and the half-wing geometer (Phigalia titea) (1,14,34).
Chestnut oak is more resistant to wood borers than most oaks but is particularly susceptible to attack by ambrosia beetles, especially the Columbian timber beetle (Corthylus columbianus) and several species of the genera Platypus and Xyleborus; these beetles are particularly damaging to trees that have been weakened by fire or drought. The more important wood borers that attack chestnut oak are the oak timberworm (Arrhenodes minutus), the carpenterworm (Prionoxystus robiniae), and the little carpenterworm (P. macmurtrei).
Chestnut oaks are also susceptible to several gallforming wasps (Cynipidae), a pit scale (Asterolecanium quercicola), and the golden oak scale (A. variolosum). These insects may kill twigs and branches but rarely kill mature trees.
The acorns of chestnut oak are frequently infested with larvae of the nut weevils Curculio spp. and Conotrachelus spp., the moth Valentinia glandulella, and the cynipid gall wasps (Cynipidae). However, one study indicated that chestnut oak acorns may have lower insect infestation rates than acorns of other oaks (2).
Chestnut oak is intermediate in shade tolerance. Among the oaks, it is similar in tolerance to white oak, but more tolerant than northern red, black, or scarlet oak. In closed stands in the Appalachian region, most chestnut oak reproduction lives only a few years. In partial shade, however, seedling sprout advance reproduction may persist for many years. These stems grow slowly and die back and resprout periodically but are capable of rapid growth if released.
In the Appalachian region, chestnut oak typically occupies intermediate to poor sites where it is considered to be the physiographic climax. It is excluded from the more mesic sites by species that grow more rapidly in the seedling and sapling stages, such as northern red, black, and white oaks; yellow-poplar; sugar and red maples; and black cherry. The most xeric sites are typically occupied by species even better adapted to such conditions, such as scarlet oak, post oak, and pitch pine (8,21,23).
Chestnut oak seedlings initially develop a deep tap root but later lose this configuration. Saplings and larger trees have a root system consisting of 6 to 10 main lateral roots extending 3 to 10 m (10 to 33 ft) from the root crown at depths from near the soil surface to 91 cm (36 in). Numerous secondary roots branch off these main laterals, and a dense mat of fine roots develops near the soil surface. The root system extends over an area approximately five times that of the crown area. The roots of chestnut oak are slightly deeper than those of northern red oak but not as deep as those of white oak (29).
Chestnut oak seedlings maintain much higher root starch levels during the growing season than white oak or northern red oak and have a higher root-to-shoot ratio and a more rapid initial root development rate than northern red oak. These factors may partially account for the species adaptability to xeric sites (10,16).
Flowering mid-late spring.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501064 |
When tops die back or are damaged, chestnut oak seedlings and advance reproduction sprout vigorously from dormant buds at the root collar or on the stem. For stems of advanced reproduction that have been cut, the number of sprouts per plant and the growth of the sprouts increase with increasing size of the original stem and root system (25). Stumps of cut trees up to 60 years of age sprout vigorously, but the percent of stumps that sprout declines with increasing size for trees more than 46 cm (18 in) in d.b.h. Incidence of decay is low for stump sprouts that originate within 5 cm (2 in) of the ground and such sprouts can develop into high-quality trees. Sprouting frequency and vigor are greater from stumps of trees cut during the dormant season than from those cut during the growing season (24,35).
It has been estimated that 75 percent of the chestnut oak reproduction in the southern Appalachians is of sprout origin (4).
Fagaceae -- Beech family
Robert A. McQuilkin
Chestnut oak (Quercus prinus), sometimes called rock chestnut oak, rock oak, or tanbark oak, is commonly found in the Appalachian region on dry, infertile soils and rocky ridges but reaches best growth on rich well-drained soils along streams. Good acorn crops on this medium-sized, long-lived tree are infrequent, but the sweet nuts are eaten by wildlife when available. Chestnut oak is slow growing and the lumber is cut and sold as white oak.