Arizona White Oak 315 



about one third of the nut, covered with woolly scales, which are slightly thickened 

 toward the base, thinner, and forming a slight fringe around the rim of the 

 cup. 



Quercus minima (Sargent) Small and Q. succulenta Small, of Florida, and Q. 

 jusiformis Small, of central Texas, are shrubby Live oaks not known to form trees. 



32. ARIZONA WHITE OAK— Quercus amonica Sargent 



This is the most abundant White oak in southern New Mexico and Arizona, 

 and occurs in adjacent Mexico. It grows at altitudes of 1500 to 3000 meters, and 

 attains a maximum height of 18 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.2 m. 



The branches are stout, spreading horizontally and more or less ascending, 

 forming a usually sjrmmetrical round-topped tree. The bark is about 2.5 cm. 

 thick, deeply and narrowly fissured into wide lidges, which are broken into long 

 thick plates of a light gray color; that of younger stems is much thinner, with 

 close thin scales. The twigs are stout, woolly at first, becoming less hairy, finally 

 smooth and reddish brown. The leaves are oblong to ovate or obovate, 2 to 8 

 cm. long, sharp or slightly rounded at 

 the apex, rounded or heart-shaped at 

 the base, entire or wavy, or sometimes 

 spinose-toothed toward the apex, thick 

 and somewhat revolute on the margin; 

 they are thick, stiff, rather dark green 

 and smooth, or covered with stellate 

 hairs, and with a yellowish midrib above, 

 yellow-green or pale green and thickly 

 yellowish-hairy, with a broad thick yel- 

 low midrib and slender, coarsely netted 

 venation beneath, persistent until the 

 new leaves begin to unfold. The leaf- 

 stalk is stout, slightly" flattened, woolly, 



4 to 8 mm.' long. The flowers appear in 



A -1 TVT ii. i • i - 1 J Fig. 268. — Arizona White Oak. 



Apnl or May, the stanunate m slender 



hairy catkins 4 to 5 cm. long, their calyx having 4 to 7 broad, sharp-pointed, yel- 

 low lobes; stamens exserted, their anthers oblong, notched, red or yeUow. The 

 pistillate flowers are on short hairy stalks, their involucral scales broadly ovate, 

 hairy; styles short and spreading. The fruit, ripenmg late in the autumn of the 

 first season, is sessile or short-stalked, soUtary or 2 or 3 together; nut oblong or 

 oval, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, brown and shining, often striped, cup hemispheric, 12 to 

 15 mm. across, light brown and hairy inside, embracing about one fourth of the 

 nut, covered by close, ovate scales, which are densely coated with pale woolly 

 hairs, those toward the base' of the cup thickened. 



The wood is hard and strong, close-grained, dark brown to nearly black. It 



