Distribution. Lower slopes of Mt. Shasta southward through the coast region of California to the Santa Lucia Mountains, and to Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands, and along the slopes of the Sierra Nevada to Kern County, up to altitudes of 2000° at the north and of 4500° at the south; as a shrub 4°—6° high with small thick leaves (var. frutescens Engelm.) on the desert slopes of the San Bernardino, San Jacinto and Cuyamaca mountains, at altitudes of 5000°—7000° above the sea, and on San Pedro Mártir in Lower California; nowhere common as a tree, but most abundant and of its largest size in the valleys of the coast region of central California at some distance from the sea, and on the foothills of the Sierra Nevada; very common as a shrub in the cañons of the desert slopes of the mountains of southern California; near the coast and on the islands small and mostly shrubby.
× Quercus morehus Kell., a supposed hybrid between Quercus Wislizenii and Q. Kelloggii occurs in Lake County, California.
24. [Quercus myrtifolia] Willd.
Leaves oval to oblong-obovate, acute and apiculate or broad and rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or broad and rounded or cordate at base, entire, with much thickened revolute sometimes undulate margins, or on vigorous shoots sinuate-dentate and lobed above the middle, when they unfold, thin, dark red, coated below and on the petioles with clammy rusty tomentum and densely pubescent above, at maturity thick and coriaceous, lustrous, dark green, glabrous and conspicuously reticulate-venulose above, paler, yellow-green, or light orange-brown, glabrous or pubescent below, with tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the veins, ½′—2′ long and ¼′—1′ wide; falling gradually during their second year; petioles stout, pubescent, yellow, rarely more than ⅛′ in length. Flowers: staminate in hoary pubescent aments 1′—1½′ long; calyx coated on the outer surface with rusty hairs and divided into 5 ovate-acute, segments shorter than the 2 or 3 stamens; pistillate sessile or nearly sessile, solitary or in pairs, their involucral scales tomentose and tinged with red. Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked; nut subglobose or ovoid, acute, ¼′—½′ long, dark brown, lustrous and often striate, puberulous at apex, the shell lined with a thick coat of rusty tomentum, inclosed for one fourth to one third its length in a saucer-shaped or turbinate cup light brown and puberulous within, and covered by closely imbricated broad-ovate light brown pubescent scales ciliate on the margins and rounded at their broad apex.
A round-topped tree, rarely 40° high, with a trunk 4′—5′ or rarely up to 15′ in diameter, short or rarely long spreading branches and slender branchlets coated at first with a thick pale fulvous tomentum of articulate hairs usually persistent during the summer, light brown more or less tinged with red or dark gray, and pubescent or puberulous during their first winter, becoming darker and glabrous in their second season; more often an intricately branched shrub, with slender rigid stems 3°—4° or rarely 15°—20° high and 1′—3′ in diameter. Winter-buds ovoid or oval, gradually narrowed to the acute apex, with closely imbricated dark chestnut-brown slightly puberulous scales. Bark thin and smooth, becoming near the ground dark and slightly furrowed.
Distribution. Dry sandy ridges on the coast and islands of South Carolina to Bay Biscayne, Florida, crossing the central peninsula and from the valley of the Caloosahatchee River, westward along the coast of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi; most abundant on the islands off the coast of east Florida, and of Alabama and Mississippi; often covering large areas with low impenetrable thickets; perhaps of its largest size in Orange County, on Jupiter Island, and on the coast west of the Apalachicola River, Florida.
25. [Quercus chrysolepis] Liebm. Live Oak. Maul Oak.
Leaves oblong-ovate to elliptic, acute or cuspidate at apex, cordate, rounded or cuneate at base, mostly entire on old trees, often dentate or sinuate-dentate on young trees with 1 or 2 or many spinescent teeth, the two forms often appearing together on vigorous shoots, clothed when they unfold with a thick tomentum of fulvous hairs soon deciduous from the upper and more gradually from the lower surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright yellow-green and glabrous above, more or less fulvous-tomentose below during their first year, ultimately becoming glabrate and bluish white, 1′—4′ long, ½′—2′ wide, with thickened revolute margins; deciduous during their third and fourth years; petioles slender, yellow, rarely ½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender tomentose aments 2′—4′ long; calyx light yellow, pubescent, divided usually into 5—7 broadly ovate acute ciliate lobes often tinged with red above the middle; pistillate sessile or subsessile or rarely in short few-flowered spikes, their broadly ovate involucral scales coated with fulvous tomentum; stigmas bright red. Fruit usually solitary, sessile or short-stalked; nut ellipsoidal or ovoid, acute or rounded at the full or narrow slightly puberulous apex, light chestnut-brown, ½′—2′ long and about as thick, the shell lined with a thin coat of loose tomentum, with abortive ovules scattered irregularly over the side of the seed, inclosed only at the base in a thin hemispheric or in a thick turbinate broad-rimmed cup pale green or dark reddish brown within, and covered by small triangular closely appressed scales with a short free tip, clothed with hoary pubescence, or often hidden in a dense coat of fulvous tomentum.