Quercus cornelius-mulleri

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a North American species of oak known by the common name Muller oak, or Muller's oak. It was described to science in 1981 when it was segregated from the Quercus dumosa complex and found to warrant species status of its own.[2][3][4] It was named after the ecologist Cornelius Herman Muller. It is native to southern California and Baja California, where it grows in chaparral, oak woodlands, and other habitat in foothills and mountains. It can most easily be observed in Joshua Tree National Park and in the woodlands along the western margins of the Colorado Desert in San Diego County, California.[5][6][7]

Muller's oak
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Genus: Quercus
Subgenus: Quercus subg. Quercus
Section: Quercus sect. Quercus
Species:
Q. cornelius-mulleri
Binomial name
Quercus cornelius-mulleri
Nixon & K.P.Steele
Quercus cornelius-mulleri acorns.

Description

Quercus cornelius-mulleri is a bushy shrub not exceeding 3 meters (10 feet) in height. It is densely branched, its tangled twigs gray, brown, or yellowish, fuzzy when new and becoming scaly with age.[7]

The evergreen leaves are leathery and thick. They are bicolored: white and quite woolly on the undersides and dull gray- or yellow-green and faintly hairy on the upper surfaces. The wool on the undersides of the leaves is made up of star-shaped leaf hairs that are fused into microscopic plates.[5] The leaf blades are oval with smooth or toothed edges, and measure 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters (1.0-1.4 inches) in length.[7]

The fruit is an acorn with a cap up to 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) wide covered in light-colored scales and a cylindrical, round-ended nut up to 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long.[7]

References
  1. "Quercus cornelius-mulleri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015. 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2017. data
  2. Nixon, K. C. and K. P. Steele. (1981). A new species of Quercus (Fagacaeae) from Southern California. Madroño 28 210.
  3. "Quercus cornelius-mulleri Nixon & K.P.Steele". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 December 2017 – via The Plant List.
  4. "Quercus cornelius-mulleri Nixon & K.P.Steele". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  5. Nixon, K. C. (2002). The Oak Biodiversity of California and Adjacent Regions. Archived June 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine US Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report
  6. "Quercus cornelius-mulleri". Calflora: Information on California plants for education, research and conservation, with data contributed by public and private institutions and individuals, including the Consortium of California Herbaria. Berkeley, California: The Calflora Database – via www.calflora.org.
  7. Nixon, Kevin C. (1997). "Quercus cornelius-mulleri". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). 3. New York and Oxford – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.


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