''Quercus castanea'' 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 ...

tree. It is widespread across much of Mexico, from

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

, and in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.Romero Rangel, S., E. C. Rojas Zenteno & M. L. Aguilar Enríquez. 2002. El género ''Quercus'' (Fagaceae) en el estado de México. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 89(4): 551–593
in Spanish, with line drawings of each speciesMcVaugh, R. 1974. Flora Novo-Galiciana: Fagaceae. Contributions from the University of Michigan Herbarium 12(1,3): 1–93
/ref>

Description

It is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree up to tall with a trunk as much as in diameter. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are thick and leathery, up to long, and elliptical with numerous pointed teeth along the edges. It flowers from March to June, and its acorns mature between October and December. The species is known to hybridize with other

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

red oak species across its range.

Range and habitat

''Quercus castanea'' is native to the mountains of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. In Mexico, the species inhabits the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that f ...

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...

, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, and

Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Geography The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Transv ...

between 1,400 and 2,600 meters elevation. It also inhabits 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 almos ...

of Mexico Mexico and Guatemala, and the

Montecristo Massif The Trifinio Fraternidad Transboundary Biosphere Reserve is a transboundary protected area located where the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras meet (thus the prefix ''tri'' in its name). It protects the Montecristo massif and its cloud ...

where the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras meet. In Guatemala ''Q. castanea'' has been reported up to 3,500 meters elevation. The species' estimated

extent of occurrence Extent may refer to: Computing * Extent (file systems), a contiguous region of computer storage medium reserved for a file * Extent File System, a discontinued file system implementation named after the contiguous region * Extent, a chunk of st ...

(EOO) is 1,110,000 km², based on over 500 collections and herbarium records. The species is found in a variety of montane habitats. It is common in dry oak forests, xerophytic shrublands, and open oak woodlands alongside cacti and trees of family Leguminaceae. It also grows in humid montane

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 c ...

s. In the Cuitzeo Basin of central Mexico, acorn woodpeckers (''Melanerpes formicivorus'') and

golden-fronted woodpecker The golden-fronted woodpecker (''Melanerpes aurifrons'') is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in the southern United States, Mexico and parts of Central America. Taxonomy and systematics The ...

s (''Melanerpes aurifrons'') are important acorn dispersers.

References

External links

photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Oaxaca in 1894
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6323405

castanea The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nut (fruit), nuts they produce. Th ...

Oaks of Mexico Flora of the Sierra Madre Occidental Flora of the Sierra Madre Oriental Flora of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Flora of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca Flora of the Sierra Madre del Sur Flora of the Central American montane forests Sierra Madre de Chiapas Flora of the Chiapas Highlands Trees of Chiapas Trees of Michoacán Trees of Oaxaca Trees of Puebla Trees of Veracruz Trees of Guatemala Trees of El Salvador Trees of Honduras Plants described in 1801