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Quercus taxonomy
Quercus kelloggii Newb.
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There are two habitat or plant ''Q. kelloggii'' may be the dominant tree in certain stands, and is ofassociation types where ''Quercus kelloggii'' primarily occurs. First is the Mediterranean California Lower Montane Black Oak-Conifer Forest as far north as the Klamath Mountains of southwest Oregon and as far south as California's North Coast Ranges and lower western Sierra slopes.
The second type of habitat is defined by North Pacific Oak Woodland plant association, which is found as far north as the Puget Trough, extending through the Willamette Valley and to the Klamath Range of Northern California.
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| Rights holder/Author | C. Michael Hogan, C. Michael Hogan |
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More info for the terms: basal area, density, mesic, natural, series, serpentine soils, shrub
Soils: California black oak is most common on dry, well-drained soils. McDonald [147] states that "probably the most important single soil variable that limits the occurrence of California black oak is internal drainage. Black oak is not found growing 'with its feet wet' " [147]. California black oak may be a poor competitor on moist soils. A study in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon found that in mixed-conifer forests, California black oak was competitively excluded by white fir unless water stress exceeded 2,000 kPa [21].
California black oak has no strict soil texture preference [188]. Soil textures supporting California black oak range from sandy loams to gravelly clay loams [42,147]. Maximum growth rates are attained on deep, well-drained, slightly acid loams and clay loams [42,147]. Heavy clay topsoils rarely support California black oak. California black oak tolerates shallow, rocky soils, but tends toward a shrubby form, or is less frequent, on such sites [147]. California black oak grows on diverse parent materials including granite, basalt, and sandstone [42,147]. It is rare on serpentine soils [275]. McDonald [147] provides a list of principal soil series where California black oak occurs in California. Knops and Koenig [121] provide a fertility analysis for soils beneath California black oak vs. soils beneath other oaks species on the Hasting Natural History Reservation.
Aspect influences California black oak development. North- and east-facing aspects favor California black oak development in central and southern portions of California black oak's range, while south- and west-facing slopes are most favorable in California black oak's northern limits. A Tehama County, California, study showed differential California black oak density, depending upon soil moisture and aspect. On west-facing slopes, California black oak basal area was greatest on the driest soils, while on east-facing slopes, California black oak basal area was greatest on relatively mesic soils [85]. Aspect is not important to development in deep canyons [147]. California black oak is most common on the west slope of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, but also occurs on dry, east-slope sites [275].
Terrain supporting California black oak ranges from level valley floors to alluvial slopes, rocky ridges, and steep slopes. Steep slopes are most typical, with landscapes strongly dissected by first- to fourth-order streams [147]. California black oak often dominates over ponderosa pine on dry ridges and in rocky canyons [40].
Elevation: California black oak's overall elevational range is 200 to 8,000 feet (60-2,400 m) [66,98]. It has the widest elevational range of any of the western oaks [147,154]. In Oregon, California black oak ranges from 450 feet (100 m) near Eugene to 3,000 feet (900 m) in the Klamath Mountains [147]. In California, elevation ranges from 200 feet (60 m) in Napa and Santa Rosa valleys to 8,000 feet (2,440 m) in the San Jacinto Mountains [42,147]. Overall range in the mountains of southern California is 3,600 to 8,000 feet (1,000-2,400 m) [80].
Climate supporting California black oak is mediterranean, with wet, mild winters and hot, dry summers. Eighty to ninety percent of the annual precipitation falls from November to April [159]. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30+ inches (800 mm) in southwestern Oregon and 30 to 100 inches (800-3,000 mm) in northwestern California to 12 to 15 inches (300-400 mm) in northeastern California. Snowfall comprises 0% to 80% of total precipitation, ranging from 10% to 50% where California black oak is most productive. This snow zone, where California black oak is most abundant and reaches its greatest size, is on west-facing slopes of the southern Cascade Range and on west-facing slopes of the Sierra Nevada from Shasta County south to Tulare County. Mean maximum and minimum temperatures in that snow zone are 103 ºF and 5 ºF (39 ºC and -20 ºC), respectively [147].
California black oak mostly grows on the warmest sites at the northern edge of its range. Graham and others [83] rated California black oak as the best predictive indicator of warm sites on the Hungry-Pickett area of southwestern Oregon of 16 relative-temperature indicator species. It is an indicator species for relatively hot sites in the southern Umpqua Basin of southern Oregon [163].
Shrub form and site: A shrubby form of California black oak, once described as dwarf black oak (Quercus kelloggii forma cibata) [157], occurs in Shasta, Trinity, and Tehama countries, California. It occurs at elevations of 3,000 to 6,550 feet (910-2,000 m) on dry, shallow, rocky soils. These soils are often unstable, resulting from old slides or composed of colluvial material, and slopes are steep (70-80%) [149].
More info for the terms: crown fire, fire severity, low-severity fire, moderate-severity fire, root crown, severity, surface fire, top-kill
Mature California black oaks usually survive fires of all severity. Low-severity fire generally top-kills saplings, while stem and branch tissue of larger California black oak survives [249]. Low-severity fire causes some cambium damage to trees pole-sized and smaller [25,110]. By about 60 years of age, California black oak bark is thick enough to survive low-severity fire [148]. Regardless of fire severity, spring fire corresponding to the active growing season results in greater tissue damage than fire in other seasons [110].
Moderate-severity surface fire top-kills pole-sized trees, but thick, insulating bark usually protects larger trees from fire kill [225,249]. Approximately half of all young California black oaks in a stand are killed by moderate-severity fire [110]; most other young California black oaks are top-killed [61]. For California black oaks large enough to escape top-kill, moderate-severity fire typically causes localized charring and cambium death in the trunk [193,225,249]. Plumb [192] states that "California black oak is the only (oak) species that develops bark sufficiently thick to resist low- to moderate-intensity fire in larger trees" (>6.3 inches (16 cm) DBH). The outer trunk bark is thinner and chars more readily than bark of associated pines, so California black oak trunks are more fire-sensitive to moderate-severity fire than associated ponderosa and sugar pines of similar size [162,220]. California black oak's cambium may incur heat damage even where bark is >0.5 inch (1.3 cm) thick [170,180].
Crown or severe surface fire usually top-kills mature California black oaks [162,180,220,225,249,275]. Crown or severe surface fire that burns into the root crown kills even large trees [41,110,147,155]. Mortality of pole-sized and smaller trees is common after crown fire [61,110]. Complete kill may occur in California black oaks of all size classes when individual trees or clumps of trees are surrounded by or adjoining brush [180]. Severe surface fire often kills shrubby California black oaks [110].
Two natural hybrids are recognized: Quercus x ganderi C. B. Wolf (Q. agrifolia x Q. kelloggii) and Quercus x moreha Kellogg (Q. kelloggii x wislizenii). Another hybrid, Quercus x chasei (Q. agrifolia x kelloggii) has been described in Monterey and Santa Clara Counties, CA.
Of the hybrids, Q. moreha is by far the most widespread, ranging throughout California and even found, though rarely, in south-central Oregon. The tree is distinguished readily in the winter by its sparse evergreen foliage in contrast to the completely deciduous black oak. New leaves in spring form a dense mass of shiny green foliage on the hybrid.
Forma cibata, a form by which black oak has been described, is a low shrub common to steep, rocky, talus slopes at higher elevations. Although described as a true shrub form, this status is questionable. No criteria are known for distinguishing between it and scrubby black oak trees.
More info for the terms: association, cover, fern, hardwood, mesic, natural, phase, series, shrub, shrubs, subformation
California black oak is most common in Pacific ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa var.
ponderosa; hereafter, ponderosa pine) and mixed-conifer forests, where
it is more often an associated than a dominant species [135,188]. California
black oak cooccurs with ponderosa pine throughout nearly all of California
black oak's distribution [61,148]. White fir (Abies
concolor), incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), and sugar pine (Pinus
lambertiana) are additional important associates in mixed-conifer forests [188].
California black oak is a common associate in dry-site coast Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii;
hereafter, Douglas-fir) forests in Klamath-Siskiyou region of
southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. The Klamath-Siskiyou area is
one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world, so California black
oak has many overstory plant associates there [135]. McDonald [147] provides a list of
associated trees and shrubs across
California black oak's distribution.
The California black oak cover type occurs sporadically and in
relatively small extent across California black oak's distribution. It is best
developed in southern Oregon and the northern Sierra Nevada [148,149,187,261].
More often, California black oak stands form a transition zone between mixed
chaparral and mixed-conifer forest in Sequoia National Park [185] and other
locations. The California black oak cover type is disturbance-dependent on most
sites and was more widespread before European settlement. Historically extensive
California black oak stands in Yosemite Valley,
for example, are attributed to California black oak
cultivation and very frequent understory burning by Miwoks to
promote California black oak over ponderosa pine [16,70] (see Native American fires and Other Uses
for further information).
California black oak is common to dominant in some oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands, which
have annual grassland, shrub, or mixed shrub-annual grassland understories. In
mixed-oak woodlands on the North Coast Ranges of northern California,
California black oak grows in association with coast live oak
(Q. agrifolia), blue oak (Q. lobata), Epling's oak (Q.
à eplingii), and/or tanoak (Lithocarpus
densiflorus) [26,148]. California black oak
is an associate or rare dominant in mixed-oak riparian woodlands of
coastal northern California [99]. In
low-elevation canyons throughout much of its range, California black oak codominates with canyon live oak
(Q. chrysolepis), with canyon live oak usually
dominant on dry sites and California black oak assuming dominance on mesic sites [90,149]. A
California black oak-coast live oak/interior live oak (Q. wislizenii var.
frutescens) woodland is described from Cuyamaca Rancho State Park near
San Diego, California [37].
California black oak occurs in a few plant communities dominated by narrow endemics. It
is an associate in Washoe pine (Pinus washoensis) forests in Modoc County,
California [275], giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) forests in
the Sierra Nevada [261], and bigcone Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga macrocarpa) woodlands in the mountain ranges of southern California [80].
East of Los Angeles in the San Jacinto Mountains, California black oak codominates in
California black oak-Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri)-canyon live oak/chaparral whitethorn-manzanita
(Ceanothus leucodermis-Manzanita spp.) forests [273].
California black oak joins a unique western hardwood-Great Basin shrub transition community in
the southern Cascade Range. A California black oak population in Lassen County,
California, transitions into a basin big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. tridentata)
community on pluvial Lake Lahontan [275].
Published classifications naming California black oak as a dominant or indicator species,
from north to south, are as follows:
Oregon―
California black oak woodland of Willamette Valley
California black oak and California black oak-Oregon white oak (Q. garryana)
association of western Oregon [240]
ponderosa pine-California black oak-Oregon white oak/wedgeleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus cuneatus)
community of western Oregon [178]
ponderosa pine-California black oak association of the Medford District and the Rogue National Forest [23]
California black oak/ceanothus (Ceanothus spp.) and ponderosa pine-California
black oak/ceanothus series in the Siskiyou Mountains [22]
California black oak-Douglas-fir vegetation type of the Siskiyou Mountains (review of
classifications by [68])
an indicator species (100% frequency) of the Douglas-fir/poison-oak/Pacific hound's tongue
(Toxicodendron diversilobum/Cynoglossum grande) association on the Dead Indian Plateau [20]
California―
California black oak/poison-oak and California black oak/purple needlegrass (Nassella pulchra)
association at Castle Rock, California [243]
nonconiferous California black oak phase of mixed-evergreen forest in northern California [25]
the Coast Ranges hardwood series:
California black oak-Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii)-coast live oak subseries
mixed oak-coast live oak/poison-oak subseries
California black oak-coast live oak-shore pine/ocean spray (Pinus contorta var. contorta/
Holodiscus discolor) subseries
California black oak-valley oak/grass (Poaceae) subseries [8]
Coulter pine-California black oak forest of the Coast Ranges [101,255]
California black oak communities on Bennett Mountain, Sonoma County:
California black oak/California fescue (Festuca californica)
California black oak-California bay (Umbellularia californica)
California black oak-Douglas-fir
California black oak/poison-oak
California black oak/sweet cicely (Osmorhiza berteroi) [256]
the coast live oak-California black oak-Pacific madrone phase of mixed-evergreen forest
on the Hastings Natural History Reservation [86]
montane California black oak upland hardwood vegetation type of the central and southern coastal foothills
Jeffrey pine-California black oak and ponderosa pine-California black oak phases of the
montane conifer vegetation type in the central and southern coastal foothills [235]
the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada hardwood series:
California black oak/poison oak subseries
California black oak-canyon live oak/poison-oak subseries
canyon live oak-California black oak subseries
California black oak/grass subseries
the Sierra Nevada hardwood series:
California black oak/poison-oak-snowdrop bush-Ithuriel's spear
(Styrax redivivus-Triteleia laxa) subseries
California black oak/deer brush (Ceanothus integerrimus) subseries
California black oak/deer brush-poison-oak/bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) subseries
California black oak/greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) subseries [8]
mixed-evergreen California madrone-tanoak-California black oak forests and pure California black oak
phases of mixed-evergreen forests in the Sierra Nevada [148]
mixed-evergreen California madrone-canyon live oak-California black oak forest on the Yuba
River watershed [91]
California black oak phase of ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi)
forest vegetation types [210,255]
California black oak phase of the broadleaf forest subformation in southern California [190]
California black oak woodlands of the San Bernardino Mountains [102]
Coulter pine-California black oak forest of the Transverse and Peninsular ranges [101,255,266]
General California classifications:
More info for the terms: crown residual colonizer, secondary colonizer, tree
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [238]:
Tree with adventitious-bud root crown/root sucker
Crown residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)
Secondary colonizer - off-site seed
United States
Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked
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California black oak
Kellogg oak
Fagaceae -- Beech family
Philip M. McDonald
California black oak (Quercus kelloggii.) exceeds all other California oaks in volume, distribution, and altitudinal range. Yet this deciduous hardwood has had little sustained commercial use and almost no management, even though its wood closely resembles that of its valuable, managed, and heavily used counterpart-northern red oak (Quercus rubra)-in the Eastern United States.
First collected in 1846 near Sonoma, CA, the species was not named until. 1857 when John Newberry called it kelloggii in honor of Albert Kellogg, a pioneer California botanist and physician (17). In later botanical works, the species was called Q. californica and black oak or Kellogg's oak.
Acorns of California black oak were carried from San Francisco to England in 1878. Thirty-two years later, trees from these acorns were described as being 30 feet tall and making good growth (10).