''Chrysolepis chrysophylla'' is a species of flowering

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the

beech family 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 evergre ...

known by the common names golden chinquapin, giant chinquapin, and western chinquapin. It is native to the Pacific coast of the United States.McMurray, Nancy E. 1989
''Chrysolepis chrysophylla''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

Description

Shrubby forms of the plant occur in dry areas, higher elevations, and poor soils. The plant grows into a tree up to tall in cooler, moister areas such as valley bottoms and north-facing slopes, and foggy and rainy areas. The trunks can reach up to in diameter. The bark is reddish, thin and smooth on young trunks; on older specimens it becomes thicker and platy. The open crown of the large tree is conical in shape. The leathery

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

leaves are dark green on the upper sides and golden underneath. The leaves are long and folded upward along the midrib. The species is

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

, with individuals bearing both male and female flowers. White male flowers are borne in the leaf axils, and a cluster of female flowers is borne beneath them. A spiny

bur A bur (also spelled burr) is a seed or dry fruit or infructescence that has hooks or teeth. The main function of the bur is to spread the seeds of the bur plant, often through epizoochory. The hooks of the bur are used to catch on to for exam ...

contains one to three nuts, each about 1 cm in diameter. There is generally a

burl A burl (American English) or burr (British English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from do ...

at the base of the tree. The tree may sprout from adventitious buds in the burl, a form of

vegetative reproduction Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

that is more common in dry areas where it is less likely that

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s would become established. The tree may live up to 500 years.''Chrysolepis chrysophylla''.

Flora of North America The ''Flora of North America North of Mexico'' (usually referred to as ''FNA'') is a multivolume work describing the native plants and naturalized plants of North America, including the United States, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenla ...

. The species resembles

tanoak ''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is native to the far western United States, particularly Oregon ...

, but has chestnutlike fruit instead of an acorn.

Distribution and habitat

''Chrysolepis chrysophylla'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Pacific coast of the United States, growing from extreme southern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

through western

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, south to west-central

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It grows in

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

forests dominated by

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

white fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Cascade Range and southern Rocky Mountains, and into the isolated mountain range ...

western hemlock ''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonoma ...

, and

Shasta red fir ''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rare ...

, or mixes of tree types. It may be an

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

shrub, or it may codominate the canopy as a tree. Habitat types where the tree may be found include coastal forests, woodlands, and

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

. In the western

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

it grows in western hemlock forests. In the southern Cascades it grows at higher elevations but takes on a smaller, shrubbier form. It can be found growing up to above sea level.

Ecology

The tree is shade intolerant, thus requiring occasional disturbances to propagate. Contrarily, the shrub form can tolerate shade and is relatively indifferent to disturbances. Older trees become affected by

heart rot 300px, The bracket fungus '' Fistulina hepatica'' is one of many that cause heart rot. In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches. Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark ...

. The nuts are commonly eaten by squirrels and chipmunks.

Uses

The tree has a heavy, strong wood which is light brown with a pinkish tinge. It rarely grows in large enough quantities to serve commercial purposes. The nut is edible, having a flavor similar to the

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according t ...

or filbert. They were consumed by Native Americans.

References

External links

CalPhotos Photo Gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2967382 Fagaceae Endemic flora of the United States Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of Washington (state)