IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS A 
scales mostly obtuse (blunt) but sometimes acute, seldom keeled, thickened 
or woolly, the acorn shell tomentose (woolly) and often 3-ridged within, the 
abortive ovules apical or subapical (except in Q. emoryi). 
In this publication Professor Trelease’s system is followed. 
Mast furnished by oaks is an important feed item on many ranges, 
especially the acorns of the white-oak group, which are perhaps of 
greatest relative value on range for swine and for game such as 
bear. Chemical analyses made of the foliage of a number of species 
of western oaks indicate that the leaves evidently are not a balanced 
ration and should be supplemented by grass and other feed. Con- 
centrated feeding on oak sometimes results in sickness and even 
death to cattle and young lambs (81, 84), because of the toxic astrin- 
gency of the tannic acid present in the plant tissues. Losses and 
sickness are most apt to occur in spring, in exceptionally dry years 
and on overgrazed range. Prominent symptoms are constipation, 
emaciation, inertia, and the characteristic “shinneried” attitude. 
Such sickness and loss, however, are usually preventable by proper 
management. E. R. Hall reported in 1925 that in the course of 
studies of mule deer on the Kaibab National Forest oak was found to 
constitute a larger percentage of the deer’s feed than did any other 
one plant. It was also found to be the most abundant of all the 
plants eaten by the deer on summer range in the zone of its occur- 
rence. 
White Oaks (Subgenus Leucobalanus) 
Gambel oak (Quercus gambelit) (pl. 2, A) occurs from Wyoming 
to western Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, Arizona, Utah, and _ prob- 
ably parts of Nevada also; it is primarily a species of the South- 
west and of the central and southern Great Basin. The species is 
an aggregate according to some modern authorities, who have 
segregated a number of species or forms, based largely on shape of 
acorn and shape, lobing, color, and persistence of leaves. 
Gambel oak is typically a large shrub but is sometimes a small 
tree. In the Southwest especially it is a common understory of 
western yellow pine, being abundant on table-lands and hillsides 
between about 6,000 and 8,000 feet and occurring with greater or 
less frequency at least 1,000 feet below and above these limits. 
Gambel oak is important primarily because of its great abundance, 
especially on spring and fall range, its ready accessibility, and its 
huge total leaf surface. From its sheer quantity one is compelled 
to rank it among the foremost forage-producing plants of numerous 
areas within its range. It also is admirably resistant to heavy 
grazing. Associated with more palatable species Gambel oak is 
grazed lightly by cattle, sheep, and horses. The relatively sweet 
acorns, much relished by swine wherever they have access to the mast 
and eaten by other stock as well, have high fattening qualities. 
Chapline (15) regards the mast as of moderately high palatability 
to goats in summer. The young shoots of this oak contain from 4 to 
10 per cent of tannic acid. 
New Mexican oak (Q. novomewicana), Vreeland oak (Q. vree- 
landw), and Utah oak (Q. utahensis)—the latter known as Rocky 
Mountain white oak (131)—are perhaps hardly more than forms, 
varieties, or subspecies of Gambel oak. Chapline (/5) reports New 
