Bluejack Oak

Common and often gregarious on the southern slopes of the Himalayas from 1000-2700 m. The wood is used for building purposes and the leaves are used for fodder.

Quercus incana reportedly hybridizes with Q . falcata [= Q . × subintegra (Engelmann) Trelease], Q . hemisphaerica (D. M. Hunt 1989), Q . laurifolia (= Q . × atlantica Ashe), Q . laevis (= Q . × asheana Little), Q . marilandica (= Q . × cravenensis Little), Q . nigra (= Q . × caduca Trelease), and Q . phellos (E. J. Palmer 1948); with Q . pumila (D. M. Hunt 1989); and with Q . velutina (= Q . × podophylla Trelease), and questionably, Q . myrtifolia .

Trees 6-18 m tall. Shoots puberulous to tomentose. Winter buds 1.5-2 cm long, covered with brown scales. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 6-15 x l.7-4.7 cm, coarsely serrate but not at the base, acuminate, penninerved, nerves 11-20 pairs, upper surface dark green, lower white tomentose; petiole 0.4-l.5 cm long. Male flowers in catkins, 6-14 cm long; bract ovate-oblong to oblong-orbiculate, c. 2 mm long; perianth tomentose, segments c. 1 mm long, obtuse or acute; stamens 4-6; anthers c. 1 mm long, hairy, oblong, apiculate. Cupule c. l.2 cm broad, sub-globose, enclosing half the nut at maturity. Nut 1-2 cm long, canescent, umbo tipped, glabrescent.

Trees , deciduous, to 10 m. Bark dark brown to black with square plates. Twigs brown to reddish brown, 1-2.5 mm diam., tomentose to sparsely pubescent. Terminal buds light brown to reddish brown, narrowly ovoid to conic, 3.5-7 mm, distinctly 5-angled in cross section, scales pubescent, often tuft of reddish or silvery hairs at apex. Leaves: petiole 2-8(-10) mm, tomentose. Leaf blade narrowly ovate or elliptic to obovate, usually widest near middle, planar, 30-100 × 12-35 mm, base acute (rarely attenuate) to rounded, margins entire, with 1 apical awn (leaves on juvenile or 2d-flush growth may have 2-3 shallow lobes and 3-5 awns), apex acute or obtuse, rarely rounded; surfaces abaxially densely tomentose, hairs in vein axils often reddish, easily distinguished from others, adaxially often glossy, sparsely pubescent, especially along midrib and near base, veins often raised. Acorns biennial; cup saucer-shaped to bowl-shaped, 4.5-8 mm high × 10-18 mm wide, covering 1/4-1/3(-1/2) nut, outer surface pubescent or puberulent, inner surface uniformly pubescent, scale tips tightly appressed, obtuse or acute; nut ovoid (rarely subglobose) to broadly ellipsoid, 10-17 × 10-16 mm, occasionally striate, glabrate, scar diam. 5.5-10.5 mm.

Distribution: Outer and temperate N.W. Himalayas to Nepal, Upper Burma.

Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tex., Va.

Fl. Per.: April-May. Fr. Per.: August-September.

Flowering spring.

Well-drained sandy soils of barrens, hammocks, dunes, and upland ridges; 0-250m.

Quercus cinerea Michaux