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Quercus taxonomy
Quercus oblongifolia Torr.
EOL Text
More info for the term: wildfire
Data from 1963 recorded that Mexican blue oak had sprouted abundantly
after stems were killed by a fire in southeastern Arizona [33]. The
year the fire occurred was not mentioned by the authors.
In 1983, a wildfire swept through a Madrean evergreen oak woodland with
grass understory in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. Burned and
unburned plots were compared 2 years later. Most Mexican blue oak of
large (greater than 30 cm) size classes survived; only 14.2 percent
died. Significantly (P=0.011) more individuals produced sprouts in the
burned plots (94 percent) compared to the unburned plots (8 to 16
percent) [9].
Mexican blue oak leaves are highly palatable yearlong to white-tailed
and mule deer [43].
Mexican blue oak is top-killed by fire. Surviving individuals sprout
prolifically [31]. The thin shelled acorns probably are killed by fire.
Acorns covered by an insulating layer of soil may survive a low-severity
fire.
Quercus oblongifolia, commonly known as the Mexican blue oak or Sonoran blue oak, is an evergreen small tree or large shrub in the white oak group. It is endemic to the south central montane regions of North America.[1]
Contents
Distribution[edit]
This oak is common in high grasslands, canyons and mesas in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico and in the states of Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Sonora in Mexico.[1]
Description[edit]
The Mexican blue oak is a small evergreen tree growing five to eight metres tall with a rounded crown. At higher elevations it is typically a large shrub. The trunk is up to half a metre in diameter and the bark is light gray and densely furrowed. The twigs are yellowish brown and hairless with reddish brown buds. The leaves are small, alternate and oblong, with entire margins, leathery, bluish-green above and mid green below. The flowers appear in spring at the same time as the old leaves are being shed and new leaf growth starts. The male flowers form yellowish-green catkins and the female flowers are solitary or paired and grow in the leaf axils. The light brown acorns are ovoid or oblong, about two centimetres long and lodged in scaly, bowl-shaped cups about one third the length of the nut.[1][2]
Habitat[edit]
This oak is common at elevations of 1200 to 1800 metres. It is often found on thin sandy soils in semi-arid regions and is the dominant species in lower open oak woodland where it grows in association with Arizona white oak (Quercus arizonica) and Emory oak (Quercus emoryi).[3] It is an important constituent of pinyon-juniper communities.[4] where it grows in association with species of pine and juniper, Arizona rosewood (Vauquelinia californica), shrubby buckwheat (Eriogonum wrightii), catclaw mimosa (Mimosa aculeaticarpa), bullgrass (Muhlenbergia emersleyi), plains lovegrass (Eragrostis intermedia), fendlerbush (Fendlera rupicola) and wolftail (Lycurus phleoides).[3]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Flora of North America
- ^ Virginia Tech: Mexican blue oak
- ^ a b Fire Ecology
- ^ Pieper, Rex D.; Wood, M. Karl; Buchanan, Bruce B. 1988. Pinyon-juniper woodlands of New Mexico: a biological and economic appraisal. Special Report 73. Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico State University, College of Agriculture and Home Economics: 1-11.[5258]
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
| Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quercus_oblongifolia&oldid=640204011 |
United States
Origin: Unknown/Undetermined
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Unknown/Undetermined
Confidence: Confident
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
| Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Quercus+oblongifolia |
More info for the terms: root crown, root sucker, secondary colonizer, shrub
Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/soboliferous species root sucker
Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
Secondary colonizer - off-site seed
Mexican blue oak
blue oak
white oak
More info for the term: fire suppression
Mexican blue oak is generally top-killed by fire; surviving Mexican blue
oak sprouts [31].
Oaks generally survive low intensity, fast fires [31]. Mexican blue oak
may also survive high intensity fires of short duration [9,31]. Fires
that occur in closed-canopy oak woodlands are probably high intensity,
stand replacement fires [31].
Prior to settlement, fire return intervals may have been from 10 to 20
years. Currently, fire return intervals are longer due to overgrazing
and fire suppression [47].