''Quercus mohriana'', commonly known as the Mohr oak, shin oak or scrub oak, is a North American

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

shrub or small tree in the white oak group and is native to the south-central United States and north-central Mexico. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

''mohriana'' honors the pharmacist and botanist Charles Mohr of Alabama.

Description

The Mohr oak can be a small tree up to 6 meters (20 feet) high or a large thicket-forming shrub. The bark is light brown, rough and deeply furrowed. The twigs are yellowish or whitish, with short velvety hairs, becoming smooth with age. The buds are dark red-brown, sparsely covered with hairs. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are shiny, leathery, dark blue-gray and densely covered with light gray hairs underneath. They have entire margins and are occasionally toothed. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

, which appears in spring, is reddish. There are female

catkin A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind- pollinated ( anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). It contains many, usually unisexual flowers, arra ...

s with one to three flowers and male catkins with numerous flowers. The acorn cups are deep and the acorns grow singly or in pairs and are light brown, broadly ovoid with a rounded apex.

Distribution and habitat

The Mohr oak is abundant in western

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It also grows in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

. The preferred habitat of this oak is on dry limestone or calcareous slopes at a height of between above sea level, in

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

and desert scrub

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. It thrives in regions that receive less than 63 cm (25 in) of annual rainfall.Texas Native Plants
/ref> It grows in association with true mountain-mahogany ''

Cercocarpus montanus ''Cercocarpus montanus'' is a North American species of shrub or small tree in the family Rosaceae native to northern Mexico and the western United States. It is known by the common names alder-leaf mountain-mahogany, alder-leaf cercocarpus, and ...

'', desert ceanothus ''

Ceanothus greggii ''Ceanothus pauciflorus'', known by the common name Mojave ceanothus, is a species of flowering shrub in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It is native to the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah) and Mexic ...

'', the sandpaper oak '' Quercus pungens'', oneseed juniper ''

Juniperus monosperma ''Juniperus monosperma'', the New Mexico juniper or one-seed juniper, is a species of juniper native to western North America, in the United States in Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado, western Oklahoma (Panhandle), and western Texas, and in ...

'', cane cholla ''

Opuntia imbricata ''Cylindropuntia imbricata'', the cane cholla (walking stick cholla, tree cholla, or chainlink cactus), is a cactus found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including some cooler regions in comparison to many other cacti. It o ...

'', purplefruited pricklypear ''

Opuntia phaeacantha ''Opuntia phaeacantha'' is a species of prickly pear cactus known by the common names brown-spine prickly pear, tulip prickly pear, and desert prickly pear, which is found across the southwestern United States, lower Great Plains, and northern Me ...

'', Mexican buckeye ''

Ungnadia speciosa ''Ungnadia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, containing one species, ''Ungnadia speciosa'', commonly known as the Mexican buckeye. It is native to northern Mexico, as well as Texas and southern New Mexico in the United ...

'', Texas persimmon ''

Diospyros texana ''Diospyros texana'' is a species of persimmon that is native to central, south and west Texas and southwest Oklahoma in the United States, and eastern Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. Common names includ ...

'', hairy tridens ''

Erioneuron pilosum ''Erioneuron'' is a genus of New World plants in the grass family native to southern North America and southern South America. They are sometimes called by the common name woollygrass. These are tufty grasses with hairy spikelets.Quercus fusiformis ''Quercus fusiformis'' (also often referred to as ''Q. virginiana'' var. ''fusiformis''), commonly known as escarpment live oak, plateau live oak, plateau oak, or Texas live oak, is an evergreen or nearly evergreen tree. Its native range inc ...

''.Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 1992. Plant communities of Texas (Series level): February 1992. Austin, TX: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Natural Heritage Program. 38 p.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4112180 mohriana Trees of Northern America Flora of Oklahoma Plants described in 1901 Oaks of Mexico