''Quercus benthamii'' is a species of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

in the family

Fagaceae The Fagaceae are a family of flowering plants that includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Fagaceae in temperate regions are mostly deciduous, whereas in the tropics, many species occur as eve ...

. It is native to

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

s of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and southern

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Description

''Quercus benthamii'' is typically large evergreen tree. Mature individuals can reach up to 40 meters in height.

Range and habitat

''Quercus benthamii'' is a rare species, distributed in humid cloud forests from southern Mexico to western Panama. It is sparsely distributed across its range. In Mexico it is found in the

La Chinantla La Chinantla (Poblado 10) is a town in the Municipality of Uxpanapa, in southwest Veracruz, Mexico. The town was founded in 1977 as a resettlement town for indigenous people displaced by the construction of the Malpaso Dam in Chiapas Chiap ...

region of Oaxaca, located on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, and in the

Sierra Madre de Chiapas The Sierra Madre de Chiapas is a major mountain range in Central America. It crosses El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. The Sierra Madre de Chiapas is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges that consists of an alm ...

and Chiapas Highlands of Chiapas, between 1,500 and 3,000 meters elevation. It is also found in the montane cloud forest enclaves in Central America – Guatemala at 2,100 meters elevation, El Salvador at 2,500 m, Honduras from 1,800 to 2,800 meters elevation, Nicaragua from 450 to 1,700 meters elevation, Costa Rica at 2,400 m, and western Panama at 2,100 m. The estimated area of occupancy (AOO) for ''Q. benthamii'' is 584 km², which may be an under-estimate.

Conservation

''Quercus benthamiis habitat has been subject to continuous human disturbance across much of its range. Cloud forest enclaves have been reduced to small fragments. Threats include over-extraction of timber and firewood, cattle grazing, human-caused fires, and conversion of forest to pasture and coffee plantations. Cloud forest habitats are also threatened by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The population trend of ''Q. benthamii'' is not known, but it is subject to severe habitat fragmentation, and is assessed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

Systematics

The Talamanca oak ('' Quercus rapurahuensis'', Pittier ex Seemen), distributed in Costa Rica and Panama, is now considered a synonym of ''Q. benthamii''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3009793 benthamii Trees of Central America Trees of Chiapas Trees of Oaxaca Flora of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca Sierra Madre de Chiapas Flora of the Central American montane forests Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Cloud forest flora of Mexico Oaks of Mexico