Sandpaper Oak

Description

Quercus pungens, commonly known as the sandpaper oak or scrub oak, is a North American species evergreen or sub-evergreen shrub or small tree in the white oak group. There is one recognised variety, Quercus pungens var. vaseyana, the Vasey shin oak. Sandpaper oak hybridizes with gray oak (Quercus grisea) in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas. The sandpaper oak can be a small tree of up to 40 feet (12 meters) high or a large shrub that forms thickets. The bark is light brown and papery. The twigs are gray, with short velvety hairs, becoming smooth with age. The buds are dark red-brown, sparsely covered with hairs. The leathery leaves are semi-evergreen, being bright glossy green at first but turning darker with age. It is their rough texture, caused by minute persistent hair bases, that gives the tree its name of sandpaper oak. The inflorescence, which appears in spring, is reddish, the female catkins having one to three flowers and the male catkins numerous flowers. The acorn cups are shallow and covered with dense gray hairs. The acorns grow singly or in pairs and are light brown, broadly ovoid with a rounded apex.