Quercus cornelius-mulleri

Muller's oak
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Genus: Quercus
Species: Q. cornelius-mulleri
Binomial name
Quercus cornelius-mulleri
Nixon & K.P.Steele 1981

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Muller oak, or Muller's oak. It was described to science in 1981 when it was segregated from the Quercus dumosa complex and found to warrant species status of its own.[1] It was named for the ecologist Cornelius Herman Muller. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in chaparral, oak woodlands, and other habitat in foothills and mountains. It can most easily be observed in Joshua Tree National Park and in the woodlands along the western margins of the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, California.[2][3][4]

Description

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a bushy shrub not exceeding 3 meters (10 feet) in height. It is densely branched, its tangled twigs gray, brown, or yellowish, fuzzy when new and becoming scaly with age.[4]

The evergreen leaves are leathery and thick. They are bicolored: white and quite woolly on the undersides and dull gray- or yellow-green and faintly hairy on the upper surfaces. The wool on the undersides of the leaves is made up of star-shaped leaf hairs that are fused into microscopic plates.[2] The leaf blades are oval with smooth or toothed edges, and measure 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters (1.0-1.4 inches) in length.[4]

The fruit is an acorn with a cap up to 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) wide covered in light-colored scales and a cylindrical, round-ended nut up to 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Nixon, K. C. and K. P. Steele. (1981). A new species of Quercus (Fagacaeae) from Southern California. Madroño 28 210.
  2. 1 2 Nixon, K. C. (2002). The Oak Biodiversity of California and Adjacent Regions. Archived June 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. US Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report
  3. ↑ Calflora taxon report, University of California, Quercus cornelius-mulleri K. Nixon & K. Steele. Muller oak, desert scrub oak
  4. 1 2 3 4 Flora of North America, Quercus cornelius-mulleri
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