A tree, often 100° feet high, with a trunk generally 3°—4°, but sometimes 10° in diameter, divided near the ground or usually 20°—30° above it into great limbs spreading at wide angles and forming a broad head of slender branches hanging gracefully in long sprays and sometimes sweeping the ground; less frequently with upper limbs growing almost at right angles with the trunk and forming a narrow rigid head of variously contorted erect or pendant branches, and slender branchlets coated at first with short silky canescent pubescence, ashy gray, light reddish brown, or pale orange-brown and slightly pubescent in their first winter, becoming glabrous and lighter colored during their second year. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, usually about ¼′ long, with orange-brown pubescent scales scarious and frequently ciliate on the margins. Bark ¾′—1½′ thick and covered by small loosely appressed light gray scales slightly tinged with orange or brown, becoming at the base of old trees frequently 5′—6′ thick and divided by longitudinal fissures into broad flat ridges broken horizontally into short plates. Wood hard, fine-grained, brittle, light brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood; used only for fuel.
Distribution. Valleys of western California between the Sierra Nevada and the ocean from the valley of the Trinity River to Kern and Los Angeles (rare) Counties; most abundant and forming open groves in the central valleys of the state.
48. [Quercus leptophylla] Rydb.
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, cuneate or rarely rounded at base, divided about halfway to the midrib into two to four acute or rounded lateral lobes entire or occasionally furnished on the lower side with a small nearly triangular lobe, the terminal lobe short, entire, rounded at apex or three-lobed, when they unfold thickly coated with hoary tomentum, about one-third grown when the flowers open and then covered above with fascicled hairs and tomentose below, at maturity thin, dark green, lustrous and glabrous or nearly glabrous on the upper surface, yellow-green and covered below by short white hairs most abundant on the midrib and veins, 3½′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide; petioles slender, pubescent ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender villose aments; calyx scarious, divided into five or six narrow acute lobes; anthers dark red-brown as the flowers open; pistillate not seen. Fruit solitary or racemose, sessile or raised on a stout tomentose peduncle ⅖′—⅗′ in length; nut oblong-ovoid, abruptly narrowed and rounded at base, gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, ½′—¾′ long; inclosed for half its length in the thin, hemispheric cup, ⅖′—½′ in diameter, and covered with acuminate only slightly thickened appressed scales densely covered with hoary tomentum.
A tree, 30°—45° high, with a trunk 16′—24′ in diameter, heavy spreading ashy gray branches forming a round-topped head, and stout branchlets, light red-brown or purple and covered with long fascicled hairs when they first appear, becoming light brown and glabrous before autumn. Bark thick, deeply furrowed, covered with small appressed pale gray scales.
Distribution. Rich bottom-lands of the Cucharas River above La Veta, Huerfano County, Colorado; on the Mogollon Mountains, Socorro County, New Mexico.
49. [Quercus austrina] Small.
Leaves oblong-obovate, acute or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed to the long cuneate base or rarely rounded at base, usually 5-lobed with rounded lobes, the terminal lobe often 3-lobed, the upper lateral lobes pointing forward and much larger than those of the lower pair, or occasionally 3-lobed at the broad apex, or rarely nearly entire with undulate margins, when they unfold sparsely covered below with caducous fascicled hairs, at maturity glabrous, dark green and lustrous above, paler below, 3′—8′ long, 1′—4′ wide, with a prominent midrib and slender primary veins; petioles slender, at first pubescent, soon glabrous, ¼′—⅓′ in length. Flowers not seen. Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or raised on a stout stalk up to ½′ in length; nut ovoid, slightly narrowed toward the base, narrowed at the rounded pubescent apex, ½′—¾′ long, ½′ thick, inclosed for a third to a half its length in the thin hemispheric or deep cup-shaped cup, pale tomentose on the inner surface and covered with thin narrow loosely appressed blunt-pointed tomentose scales.