Compare sources for Quercus palmeri

United States (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah); Mexico (Baja California); 1000-2400 m;

reaches 5 m tall; often multiple trunks, looking like bush or thicket; stout, stiff branches;

Evergreen. Shrub or small tree usually under 12’ forms dense thickets almost impenetrable due to rigid twigs and spiny leaves

2-3 x 2-4 cm; persistent 3 years; elliptic or rounded; leathery; not convex; apex rounded; base rounded to sub-cordate; margin wavy, sometimes revolute, with 3-9 sharp teeth each side (among the spiniest of any oak species), seldom entire; grey green above, with fascicled erect and twisiting hairs; glaucous, waxy, minutely yellowish brown tomentose beneath; 5-8 vein pairs, prominent below; petiole 2-5 mm, round in cross section, pubescent or not;

• 1 1/2”
• leathery, very spiny, thick, circular
• underleaf waxy yellow

acorn 2-3 cm long; oblong to spindle-shaped; pointed, mucronate; single or paired; enclosed 1/4 to 1/3 by cup; cup sessile or nearly so, thin, flared, wider than nut, scales covered with orangish glandular hairs; maturing in 2 years, from August to October;

• 1 1/4”
• solitary
• cup relatively shallow yellowish, often flared, often short peduncle

male in April-May; 7-9 stamens;

Uncommon and local in disjunct locations, in canyon thickets, margins of chaparal.
Rare in CA more commin in AZ.
Not cultivated

– A.Camus : n° 294; – Subgenus Quercus, section Protobalanus ; – Close to Q.chrysolepis ; – Resembles Q.cedrosensis that have less rounded, greener leaves, and conspicuous scales; resembles also Q.chrysolepis whose cup is not wider than nut, and Q.turbinella whose leaves are smaller, with stalked acorns and without the flared cup ; – No known hybrids;