FAGACE^E 



297 



(Vine Oak) ; ascending in its shrubby forms to considerable altitudes on the western slopes; 

 of the Cascade Mountains; abundant in northwestern California; less common and of 

 smaller size southward. 



46. Quercus utahensis Rydb. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and rounded or cuneate at base, divided 

 often nearly to the midrib by broad or narrow sinuses into four or five pairs of lateral 

 lobes rounded or acute at apex, the upper lobes usually again lobed or undulate, the ter- 



Fig. 272 



minal lobe rounded at apex, entire or three-lobed, thick, dark green, glabrous or nearly 

 glabrous above, pale and soft pubescent below, 2|'-7' long, l|'-3' wide, with a prominent 

 midrib and primary veins, and conspicuous veinlets,; petioles stout, hoary-tomentose early 

 in the season, pubescent or glabrous before maturity, f'-l' in length. Flowers: staminate 

 in aments covered with fascicled hairs, 2'-2' long; calyx scarious, divided to the middle 

 by wide sinuses into narrow acuminate lobes; anthers yellow; pistillate usually solitary or 

 in pairs, the scales of the involucre thickly coated with hoary tomentum. Fruit usually 

 solitary, sessile or raised on a stout pubescent peduncle \'-\' in length; nut ovoid, broad 

 and rounded at the ends, f'-f long, \'-9,\' thick, usually inclosed for about half its length 

 in the thick hemispheric cup covered with broad ovate pale pubescent scales much thick- 

 ened on the back and closely appressed below the middle of the cup, gradually reduced in 

 size upward, thin and less closely appressed toward its rim bordered by the free projecting 

 tips of the upper row of scales. 



A tree, occasionally 30 high, with a trunk 4 '-8' in diameter, thick erect branches forming 

 a narrow open head, and stout branchlets red-brown and covered with fascicled hairs when 

 they first appear, becoming light orange-brown and puberulous. Bark dark gray-brown, 

 rough and scaly. 



Distribution. Dry foothill slopes and the sides of canons; borders of southwestern 

 Wyoming to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and to Utah, northern 

 New Mexico and Arizona, passing into var. mollis Sarg. with thinner scales on the lower 

 part of the cup of the fruit; with the species over its whole range, but most abundant on 

 the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona; here rarely 40 high, with a trunk 18'-20' in 

 diameter. 



