4. Quercus falcata Michx. (Spanish oak, southern red oak)
Pl. 414 j, k;
Map 1842
Plants trees to
30 m tall. Bark medium to dark gray, divided into narrow persistent blocks or
ridges, the inner bark orange. Twigs 2–3 mm wide, dark brown or tawny, with
scattered or crowded, branched, spreading hairs. Buds 4–7 mm long, brown or
dark brown, the lower scales pubescent or glabrous, except along the margins,
the upper scales pubescent. Petioles 12–77 mm long. Leaf blades 9–21 cm long,
7–18 cm wide, rounded-obtuse to rounded at the base, rarely truncate, divided
60–90% of the width, with 1 or 2 large lobes and 0–2 smaller lobes or teeth per
side, these usually unevenly spaced (most leaves with a long, unlobed, narrowly
or rarely broadly rectangular apical portion), the basalmost lobes all or
mostly 3–11 cm above the blade base; well-developed lobes 13–30 mm wide,
narrowly lanceolate, rarely ovate, long-tapered or rarely obtuse apically,
undivided or with a tooth on the lower margin, each with 1 or 2(3) bristles 3–4
mm long (the whole blade with 6–12 marginal bristles), with 2–4 secondary veins
per side reaching the margin at the tips of lobes or teeth and ending in
bristles, others reaching toward sinuses and turning aside before reaching the
margin; the upper surface dark green and shiny, almost glabrous (with small
branched spreading hairs mostly near the major veins), the undersurface tawny,
with moderately to densely crowded 7–11-rayed, spreading hairs and often also
inconspicuous unbranched appressed hairs over the whole surface, very felty to
the touch, the vein axils with small tufts of 6–12-rayed, often stalked hairs.
Acorn cups 6–8 mm long, 12–16 mm wide, covering 30–50% of the nut, bowl-shaped,
the inner surface smooth, densely hairy, the outer surface with the scales thin
and plane or weakly convex-thickened, pubescent. Nuts 10–13 mm long, 9–12 mm
wide, ellipsoid to globose, without distinct concentric grooves around the tip.
April–May.
Scattered mostly
in southernmost Missouri, north locally to Camden and Perry Counties
(southeastern U.S. west to Missouri and Texas). Bottomland forests, mesic
upland forests, savannas, sand savannas, sand prairies, margins of glades,
banks of stream and rivers, oxbows, sloughs, and swamps; also roadsides.
Morphological
variation in Q. falcata was analyzed statistically by R. J. Jensen
(1989). Typical leaves have 1 or 2 pairs of large lateral lobes on the lower
part of the blade; the apical part of the leaf is longer than the lateral
lobes. Leaf blades with large lateral lobes above the midpoint and an unlobed
tip that is no larger than the lateral lobes are sometimes seen, especially
leaves from deeply shaded branches on the lower side of the crown. Specimens
with this leaf form have been called f. triloba (Michx.) E.J. Palmer
& Steyerm. Plants having relatively narrow leaves with short lateral lobes
have been called f. angustior E.J. Palmer & Steyerm. Hybrids have
been recorded with four other species.