Quercus john-tuckeri


Quercus john-tuckeri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Tucker oak, or Tucker's oak. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the chaparral and oak woodlands of mountain slopes in the western Transverse Ranges, the southernmost Central Coast Ranges, and the margins of the Mojave Desert. The species is named after John M. Tucker, professor of botany at the University of California at Davis, specialist in Quercus.

Description

Quercus john-tuckeri is a bushy shrub growing up to 2 to 5 meters in height, sometimes becoming treelike, exceeding six meters. The branches are gray or brown, the twigs coated in short woolly fibers when new and becoming scaly with age. The evergreen leaves are leathery and thick, sometimes brittle. They are gray-green, the lower surface slightly paler. The undersides are hairy, the upper surfaces somewhat less so. The leaf blade is roughly oval, spine-toothed, and less than 4 centimeters long. The fruit is an acorn with a thin cap 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide and a nut 2 to 3 centimeters long.