Quercus virginiana

Virginia oak ( Quercus virginiana)

The Virginia - oak (Quercus virginiana ), also called life - oak, is a species of the genus of oaks (Quercus ) in the beech family ( Fagaceae ).

Description

Appearance, bark and leaves

The Virginia - oak is a more or less evergreen tree or sometimes shrub that reaches a height of up to 35 meters and a trunk diameter up to about 1 meter. Shrubs sometimes form rhizomes. The tree crown sits very broad sweeping on a short stem. The dark - brown to almost black bark is scaly and cracked. The yellowish to pale gray bark of the branches is hairy tiny fluffy in the first year and the second year bald.

The alternate and spirally arranged on the branches leaves are divided into petiole and leaf blade. The simple, leathery leaf blade is elliptic to obovate with smooth edge and the tip is rounded. Often the lower leaf surface is hairy. The have a length of 1 to 2 mm, almost spherical to ovoid, reddish or dark - brew bud bud scales that are bald or hairy fluffy on the edge.

The alternate and spirally arranged on the branches leaves are divided into a 1 to 10 ( to 20 ) mm long petiole and leaf blade one. The simple, more or less flat, with a length of usually 3.5 to 9 ( 8-15 ) cm and a width of 2-4 (1.5 to 8.5) cm reversed - ovate to lanceolate wrong, sometimes circular or elliptic - ovate leaf blade with wedge-shaped to rounded, rarely pruned or herzfömiger Spreitenbasis has a smooth or prickly on each side, uneven one to dreigezähnten margin. There are six to nine, rarely up to twelve indistinct lateral nerves on each side of the main nerve. The leaf underside is whitish to frosting because it is dense, pressed covered with stellate hairs; in the shade it is bright green and bare. The dark to light green leaves are shiny, bald or has scattered tiny star hair.

Generative features

The flowers on time is late winter to spring zeitigem. The Virginia - oak is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ).

One to three fruits are in a (rarely 3 to ) 10 to 20 mm long stem. The one with a height of 8 to 15 mm and a diameter of 8 to 15 mm ball to deep cup-shaped fruit cup ( cupula ) has whitish to grayish, woolly hairy, thickened at the base, keeled scales, which have a red tip. The enveloping the under -third of the glans. The dark - brown, hairless acorn ( nut fruit ) with a length of 1.5 to 2, rarely to 2.5 cm and a diameter of 0.8 to 1.5 cm barrel almost to egg-shaped or inverted - cylindrical with a rounded or blunt end. The acorns mature in one season and are not bitter. The two seed leaves ( cotyledons ) are grown together.

Dissemination

The Virginia - oak is native to southeastern North America down to Mexico.

System

The species name Quercus virginiana in 1768 by the English botanist Philip Miller in The Gardeners Dictionary, 8th edition: first published Quercus no 16. A synonym for Quercus virginiana Mill is Quercus virginiana var eximea Sargent. Quercus virginiana Quercus belongs to the section in the genus Quercus.

Others

The life - oak is the emblem of the State of Georgia.

Swell

• Kevin C. Nixon: Quercus in the Flora of North America, Volume 3, 1997: Quercus virginiana - Online. (Section Description, distribution and systematics)