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Quercus taxonomy
Quercus chrysolepis Liebm.
EOL Text
General: Canyon live oak is an evergreen tree with a rounded, dense crown, growing from 6 to 20 m tall. It also may be a low shrub in dry, open habitats. The mature bark is gray and scaly. Like all oaks, it is monoecious and wind-pollinated. Leaves are oblong to elliptic, 2 to 3 cm long, flat, firm, with entire to toothed margins. Although dark green and shiny above, their lower surfaces are paler, grayish, and covered with a yellow “felt.” Like all oaks, it is monoecious and wind-pollinated. Acorn cups are composed of thick, tubercled scales. The one-seeded nuts are 2 to 6 cm long, oblong to elliptic, and mature in less than 2 years. On average, trees have high acorn production once every 2 to 3 years. Flowering takes place from March to May. Fruits mature between August and October.
Quercus chrysolepis var. nana (Jepson) Jepson; Q. wilcoxii Rydberg
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Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure
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More info for the term: serpentine soils
Canyon live oak occurs on a wide variety of sites ranging from canyon bottoms to ridgetops [6,133]. It grows under more variable conditions than any other oak in California [6]. It is commonly found on steep, rocky, exposed ridges, rock crevices, and canyon slopes [43,81,133,140,148,179]. Canyon live oak also grows in riparian areas [180,229,241,247], sheltered coves, and deep, moist, shady ravines and canyons [23,27,43,79,88,101,179]. It forms extensive, often pure stands on many of these sites [91,133,148].
Elevation: Canyon live oak is most common at middle elevations [161,196,249], but can occur between 300 and 9,000 feet (90-2,700 m) across its range [41,61,88,101,103,133,219,245].
| Elevational ranges of canyon live oak | |
| Location | Elevation |
| Arizona | 5,500-7,000 feet (1,700-2,100 m) [103] |
| California | 300-9,000 feet (90-2,700 m) [41,88,133,219] |
| Nevada | 5,500-6,600 feet (1,700-2,000 m) [101] |
| Oregon | 1,600-5,000 feet (488-1,525 m) [219] |
| Sonora and Baja California, Mexico | <6,600 feet (2,000 m) [245] |
Soils: Canyon live oak grows in a wide variety of soils [168,219]. It reaches its greatest size in deep, rich soils in canyon bottoms [168,179]. It also grows on rocky, shallow, infertile soils [112,148,219] but assumes a small, often shrubby growth form on these sites [133,168]. Canyon live oak grows on sedimentary, metasedimentary, and granitic parent materials [219]. It has been documented on serpentine soils in California [230,240], although it may only survive on serpentine if its roots extend into adjacent, nonserpentine soils [86].
Moisture: Moisture conditions vary in communities where canyon live oak is present. Canyon live oak grows in locations that receive as little as 6 inches (150 mm) and as much as 110 inches (2,790 mm) of annual precipitation [219]. Canyon live oak is well adapted to arid conditions [168,188]. It has deep roots that access deep sources of water during summer drought [89]. Its leathery, evergreen leaves have thick epidermal walls and a waxy cuticle that minimize water loss [98,168]. Knops and Koenig [111] describe canyon live oak as a "drought evader" that limits its growth during the dry season.
Temperature: Mean temperatures in the northern portion of canyon live oak's range are 68 to 74 °F (20-23 °C) in the summer and 37 to 41 °F (3-5 °C) in the winter. In the southern portion of its range, average temperatures are 70 to 77 °F (21-25 °C) in the summer and 41 to 45 °F (5-7 °C) in the winter. The frost-free period ranges from 160 to 230 days across its range [219].
Canyon live oak is tolerant of shade and has a higher degree of drought tolerance than associated oaks. In the southern portion of its range, it has the ability to germinate and grow at a slow rate under dense stands of other species. Most stands free of recent major disturbance have trees of all sizes and all ages.
In the Coast Ranges of central California, canyon live oak reproduces under woodland stands of blue oak, valley oak (Quercus lobata), and coast live oak where fire is excluded (8).
In the northern portion of its range, canyon live oak is less tolerant of shade than its associates in the mixed evergreen forests-tanoak, giant chinkapin, and Douglas-fir-and is usually more tolerant than Pacific madrone. Canyon live oak occurs as an early successional shrub or tree on good sites but is soon outgrown by its associates and eliminated from a stand. On drier, more open sites, it persists in the climax forest as a subordinate tree and shrub (10,16,20). Only on very rocky, steep canyon walls does it occur as a dominant in the climax forest.
As sawtimber, canyon live oak is best managed in even-aged stands, mixed with different conifers: ponderosa pine in the northern portion of its range, Digger pine in the central Coast Ranges, and Coulter pine and bigcone Douglas-fir in southern California. Closed canopies should be maintained at all times, because open-grown canyon live oak tend to develop short boles, poor form, and excessive crowns with large branches. Maximum production of biomass for fuelwood can be achieved in pure, even-aged coppice stands.
Information on state-level protected status of plants in the United States is available at Plants Database.
canyon live oak
goldcup oak
maul oak
More info for the terms: association, codominant, cover, fern, formation, hardwood, mesic, phase, series, shrub, tree, xeric
Canyon live oak occurs in pure, often extensive stands throughout its range
[91,133,148]. In California, canyon live oak forest covers an estimated 344,000 acres
(139,000 ha), and canyon live oak woodland covers an estimated 777,000 acres
(314,000 ha). Canyon live oak is also a component of many plant communities and is reportedly found,
although sometimes sparingly, in nearly every forest type
in California [34]. Several of the plant communities where canyon
live oak is a dominant or common species are described below.
Mixed evergreen:
Canyon live oak is a dominant subcanopy species in mixed-evergreen forests in
the mountains of southern Oregon and California [20,21,25,42,67,79,85,130,191,194]. A canyon live
oak phase of mixed-evergreen forest occurs in shady canyons and on steep,
north-facing slopes [79]. For information on tree, shrub,
and herbaceous species associated with canyon live oak in mixed-evergreen
forests, see these sources: [4,8,36,63,168].
Mixed conifer:
Canyon live oak is a hardwood associate in mixed-conifer forests
in southwest Oregon, California, and
northern Baja California [148,153,154,234]. For information on species associated
with canyon live oak in mixed-conifer forests, see these sources: [60,153,164,219,220].
Canyon live oak is also a subcanopy component
of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) forests in the Sierra Nevada [108,167,237] and upland redwood
(Sequoia sempervirens) forests in northern coastal California [97,193].
Bigcone Douglas-fir-canyon live oak:
Canyon live oak is codominant with bigcone Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
macrocarpa) on mesic, steep, north-facing slopes and in ravines in southern
California, often within a matrix of chaparral vegetation [20,36,43,90,94,139,141,148,219].
Mixed hardwood and oak woodland:
Canyon live oak is an important component of mixed hardwood forests and oak (Quercus
spp.) woodlands throughout California [82,92,99,196,219,244]. It grows in California black oak
(Q. kelloggii) woodlands in southwestern Oregon and California [42,43,63,99,234,252].
Canyon live oak grows with scrub oak (Q.
dumosa) and island oak (Q. tomentella) on Santa Catalina Island
[165] and is a component of blue oak (Q. douglasii)
woodlands in California foothills [18,20,21,40,162,168]. It is also associated with Oregon white oak
(Q. garryana) [99,202], interior live oak (Q. wislizeni), coast live
oak (Q. agrifolia), and valley oak (Q. lobata) [43,59,82,90,168].
Chaparral:
Canyon live oak is common in montane and mixed-chaparral communities in the foothills and mountains of
southwestern Oregon, California, and northern Baja California [19,63,64,75,110,132,152,219,226,227].
It also occurs in chaparral communities in
Arizona [47,219].
Other:
Canyon live oak is also commonly associated with Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri) on xeric sites
within or adjacent to chaparral in central and southern California [20,62,153,219,248]
and northern Baja California [150]. Canyon live oak is associated
with cypress (Cupressus spp.) groves throughout California [219] and with bristlecone fir
(Abies bracteata) forests in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Monterey County, California [91,196,214].
It is common in the understory of singleleaf pinyon (Pinus
monophylla) woodlands in southern California [152,228,232,233] and
Parry pinyon (P. quadrifolia) forests in northern Baja California [150].
Canyon live oak is listed as a dominant species in the
following vegetation classifications:
United States―
California:
- bigcone Douglas-fir-canyon live oak association [173]
- bigcone Douglas-fir-canyon live oak series [43,192]
- California bay (Umbellularia californica)-canyon live oak association [173]
- California mixed-evergreen forest [222]
- California oakwoods [244]
- canyon live oak forest [91,157]
- canyon live oak series [43,68,69,192]
- canyon live oak shrub series [192]
- canyon live oak-Coulter pine forest [194]
- canyon live oak-Douglas-fir type [173,219]
- canyon live oak/sticky whiteleaf manzanita-greenleaf manzanita
(Arctostaphylos viscida-A. patula) association [208] - Coulter pine-canyon live oak community [39]
- deerbrush (Ceanothus integerrimus)-canyon live oak/blue wildrye
(Elymus glaucus) community type [208] - Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)-canyon live oak-tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus)/
canyon live oak-tanoak community type [63] - Douglas-fir-Port-Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana)/tanoak-canyon
live oak-Pacific madrone/California hazelnut-mountain maple/salal-dwarf
Oregon-grape (Arbutus menziesii/Corylus cornuta subsp. californica-Acer
spicatum/Gaultheria shallon-Berberis nervosa) formation [243] - Douglas fir-tanoak-canyon live oak community type [208]
- interior live oak-canyon live oak shrub series [43]
- mixed conifer-evergreen forest
- mixed conifer-oak forest [157]
- mixed-evergreen forest, canyon live oak phase [21,79]
- mixed oak forest
- mixed oak-conifer forest
- mixed oak-evergreen forest [157]
- oak woodland [58]
- Society of American Foresters canyon live oak cover type [133]
- tanoak-canyon live oak association
- tanoak-canyon live oak/dwarf Oregon-grape association [16]
- tanoak-canyon live oak-Pacific madrone association [56]
- tanoak-canyon live oak/poison-oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) association [16]
Oregon:
- canyon live oak-tanoak-Douglas-fir/poison-oak/moss community type [63,219]
- Douglas-fir-canyon live oak/dwarf Oregon-grape association
- Douglas-fir-canyon live oak/poison-oak association
- Douglas-fir-canyon live oak-tanoak association [15]
- Douglas-fir-canyon live oak-tanoak/canyon live oak-tanoak community type
- Douglas-fir-pine (Pinus spp.)/tanoak-canyon live oak-giant
chinquapin/bracken fern (Chrysolepis chrysophylla/Pteridium aquilinum) community [63,219] - Douglas-fir-Port-Orford-cedar/tanoak-canyon live oak-Pacific madrone/California
hazelnut-mountain maple/salal-dwarf Oregon-grape formation [243] - Douglas-fir/tanoak-canyon live oak association [14]
- Society of American Foresters canyon live oak cover type [133]
- tanoak-bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum)-canyon live oak/western sword fern
(Polystichum munitum) association [15] - tanoak-canyon live oak association
- tanoak-canyon live oak/dwarf Oregon-grape association [16]
- tanoak-canyon live oak/hairy honeysuckle (Lonicera hirsuta) association
- tanoak-canyon live oak/poison-oak association [14]
- tanoak-Douglas-fir-canyon live oak/dwarf Oregon-grape association
- tanoak-Douglas-fir-canyon live oak/poison-oak association [15]