358 FAGACEAE 



9. Q. chrysolepis Liebm. MAUL OAK. (Fig. 65.) Tree commonly 15 to 

 60 feet high or on exposed mountain summits reduced to a mere shrub a few 

 feet high ; trunk 1 to 5 feet in diameter, the whitish bark about % inch thick 

 and fissured into narrow flat, more or less scaly ridges; leaves thick, green 

 above, yellow beneath with a fine fuzz or powder, or eventually lead-color 

 or dull white, ovate or oblong-ovate, acute at apex, entire, or with entire 

 and toothed leaves frequently found on the same twig, commonly 1 to 2 but 

 sometimes even 4 inches long; staminate catkins % to 2 inches long; calyx 

 unequally lobed ; stamens 8 to 10 ; pistillate flowers mostly sessile and solitary, 

 or sometimes in short spikes; acorns maturing in second autumn; typical cup 

 thick and round-edged with a fine fuzzy or felt-like tomentum concealing the 

 scales, the whole suggesting a yellow turban, but thinnish cups and scanty 

 pubescence not concealing the scales occur as frequently; nut ovate, globose, 

 or cylindric, rounded at apex or sharply pointed, 1 to l 1 ^ inches long, % to 

 1 inch broad. 



Canons, mountain slopes and plateaus: Sierra Nevada, most common be- 

 tween 1,500 and 5,000 feet, but round balls of Maul Oak shrubs grow on the 

 talus and walls of the Yosemite, Tehipite, Kings, Kern and other canons to 

 an altitude of 5,000 to 9,000 feet; not on Mt. Shasta; Coast Ranges (in every 

 mountain range of this region), attaining its finest development in Mendocino 

 and Humboldt cos., where truly massive trees grow on shoulders of the moun- 

 tain slopes or canon bottoms ; Southern California, on all the higher mountains ; 

 extends north to southern Oregon, south to JDower California and east to 

 New Mexico. Has a greater geographical range and grows under greater 

 variety of conditions than any other of our species of this family. Occurring 

 in open stands and usually as much scattered trees. Extremely variable in 

 size, appearance and foliage characteristics. Wood remarkable for its strength, 

 toughness and close grain which makes it suitable for mauls, tool-handles 

 and wagon-parts. Woodsmen know it as Spanish Oak, Valparaiso Oak, 

 Georgia Oak, Florida Oak, Iron Oak, Pin Oak, Hickory Oak, White Live Oak, 

 Mountain Live Oak, Drooping Oak, Golden Oak, Canon Oak and Laurel Oak. 

 The numerous folk names are due to popular appreciation of its wood qualities 

 but also in part to its variable form. The following are some of the extreme 

 forms. 



Forma grandis Jepson n. form. (Fig. 65d.) Tall tree with straight trunk 

 and narrow crown 60 to 110 feet high; cups 6 to 8 lines broad and 4 lines 

 deep, the scale-tips not involved in the dense close felt which is scantier than 

 in the type; nuts oblong, 1 to 1% inches long, obtusish or subacute. (Arbor 

 alta, trunco recto coma angusta 60 ad 110 ped. alta ; cupulas 6 ad 8 lin. latae, 

 4 lin. altae ; apices squamarum non involuti, densa artaque coacta quas est minor 

 quam in typo; glandes oblongae 1 ad 1% poll, latae, obtusiusculae vel sub- 

 acutse). Narrow North Coast Range canons, fine examples in Mill Creek Canon 

 near Ukiah (W.L.J. no. 2416). 



Forma pendula Jepson n. form. Broad-crowned tree with pendulous 

 branchlets; leaves oblong-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 2 to 4 inches long, 

 1/2 to 1 inch broad, disposed to be entire, deep shining green above. : (Arbor 

 coma lata ramulis pendulis; folia oblongo-lanceolata ad late lanceolata, 2 ad 

 4 poll, longa, % ad 1 poll, lata, plerumque integra, atrovirentia nitida supra). 

 Upper San Benito River (W.L.J. no. 2705, May, 1907). Similar and prob- 

 ably identical forms occur in El Dorado and Amador cos. 





