Quercus 1331 



QUERCUS DENSIFLORA 



Quercus densiflora, Hooker and.Arnott, Bot. Voy. Beechey, 391 (1849); Hooker, Icon. Plant, t. 380 



(1841); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. viii. 183, t. 438 (1895). 

 Quercus echinacea, Torrey, Pacific R. R. Rep. iv. i, p. 137, t. 14 (1856). 

 Pasania densiflora. Oersted, in Kjoeb. Vidensk. Medd., 1866, p. 83 ; Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 161 



(1904) ; Sargent, Trees N. Amer. 225 (1905). 



A tree, attaining in California 80 or 90 ft. in height, and 18 ft. in girth. Bark 

 divided by narrow fissures into broad rounded scaly ridges. Young branchlets with 

 a dense stellate tomentum, partly retained in the second year. Leaves (Plate 338, 

 Fig. 54) coriaceous, persistent two or three years, 3 to 4 in. long, i to 2 in. broad, 

 oblong or ovate-oblong, acute or rounded at the apex, rounded at the base ; with 

 about twelve pairs of prominent lateral nerves, all but the lower one or two pairs 

 ending in a cartilaginous-tipped serration ; margin revolute ; upper surface shining 

 green, glabrous ; lower surface rusty pubescent at first, ultimately becoming glabrous 

 and whitish or greyish, some pubescence being often retained on the midrib near the 

 base ; petiole 2^ to f in. long, tomentose. 



Fruit (section Pasania) ripening in the second year, solitary or in pairs on a 

 stout tomentose peduncle ; acorn about i in. long, enclosed at the base in a shallow 

 cupule, f in. in diameter, with scattered long hairs within ; and covered externally 

 with spreading or recurved, long linear rigid stellate -pubescent scales, usually 

 tipped with a reddish gland. 



Var. echinoides, Sargent,^ is a shrubby form, with small entire leaves, growing 

 at high elevations in the Siskiyou mountains and the northern part of the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



Q. densiflora is distributed from the valley of the Umpqua river in Oregon, 

 southwards through the coast ranges to the Santa Inez mountains in California, and 

 along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, below 4000 ft. elevation, to Mariposa 

 County. It is abundant in the coast region north of San Francisco bay, and 

 attains its largest size in Napa and Mendocino Counties. Sargent ^ gives a good 

 illustration of a fine tree near San Francisco. This species has been much cut 

 down on account of its bark, which contains a large amount of tannin ; but owing 

 to the vigorous way in which the stumps produce coppice shoots, there is little 

 danger of its extinction. 



This tree is apparently unknown in cultivation in Europe, except at Kew, where 

 there are two healthy trees, which scarcely suffered' from the severe winters of 

 1879-80, and 1880-81. One in the oak collection measures 21 ft. high by 14^ in., 

 the other, near the flagstaff, is 18 ft. by i ft. These were raised from acorns sent to 

 Kew by Prof. Sargent in November 1874. (A. H.) 



1 Silva N. Amer. viii. 183, note. ' Garden and Forest, v. Si7, % 89 (1892). 



3 Cf. Card. Chron. xvii. 228 (1882). 



