Quercus intricata
Mem. Natl. Acad. Sci. 20: 84. 1924.
Shrubs, evergreen, clonal, intricately branched. Bark gray, scaly. Twigs gray or yellow-tomentose, darkened, 1-1.5 mm diam., persistently pubescent for several seasons. Buds dark reddish-brown, 1-1.5 mm, apex round, sparsely pubescent to glabrate. Leaves: petiole 2-3 mm. Leaf-blade oblong, sometimes ovate, often strongly cupped, 10-25 × 5-13 mm, extremely thick, leathery, base cuneate to cordate, margins very coarsely revolute, often undulate-crisped, entire, rarely with a few teeth, secondary-veins 8 or 9 on each side, apex acute or obtuse; surfaces abaxially brownish or buff, persistently tomentose with erect curly hairs, rarely glabrate in 2d season, midribs (and sometimes principal veins) glabrous and brown against tomentum, secondary-veins sometimes prominently raised, usually obscured by tomentum, adaxially dark or gray-green, lustrous, sparsely or moderately stellate-pubescent, secondary-veins impressed. Acorns solitary or paired, subsessile or on peduncle to 15 mm; cup deeply cupshaped, 7-8 mm deep × ca. 10 mm wide, base round, margin thin, scales ovate or narrower, proximally canescent-tomentose, moderately or markedly tuberculate, tips closely appressed, reddish, thin, nearly glabrous; nut light-brown, ovoid, 9-12 × 8-10 mm. Cotyledons connate.
Phenology: Flowering spring.
Habitat: Open chaparral and pinyon-oak woodland, on dry, rocky, limestone slopes (in Mexico also on gypsophilous soils)
Elevation: 1500-2500 m
Distribution
Tex., Mexico (Coahuila), Mexico (Nuevo León), Mexico (Durango), Mexico (and Zacatecas)
Discussion
Quercus intricata, a fairly common element of the mountains of the Chihuahuan Desert region, is known in the United States only from two localities: a population in the Chisos Mountains and another in the Eagle Mountains of west Texas.
Selected References
None.