''Quercus incana'' is a species of oak known by the common names bluejack oak, upland willow oak, sandjack oak, and cinnamon oak. It is native to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Gulf coastal plain The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico. This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, we ...

s of the United States, from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

around

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and inland to Oklahoma and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

Description

''Quercus incana'' is a tree growing to about 10 meters (33 feet) in height, with a maximum height around . The "national champion bluejack" was a specimen from Texas that was 15.5 m (51 ft) tall and 2.1 m (7 ft) in circumference, and had a crown spread of 17 m (56 ft). The trunk is short and the crooked branches form an open, irregular crown. The platy bark is dark brown or black. The leaves are generally oval and up to 10 centimeters long by 3.5 cm wide. They are glossy green on top and woolly-haired underneath. The

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera '' Quercus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and bo ...

is up to 1.7 cm long by 1.6 cm wide, not counting the cap. The oak reproduces by seed and by resprouting from the rootcrown when the upper parts are removed. It can form

thicket A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in t ...

s by spreading underground runners.

Ecology

''Quercus incana'' often grows in

longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

(''Pinus palustris'')

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s, where it shares the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British co ...

with

turkey oak Turkey oak is a common name for several species of oaks and may refer to: *''Quercus cerris ''Quercus cerris'', the Turkey oak or Austrian oak, is an oak native to south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is the type species of ''Quercus'' sec ...

(''Q. laevis'') and

wiregrass Wiregrass is a common name for several plants Wiregrass may refer to: * Poaceae grasses ** '' Aristida'' (three-awns), especially '' Aristida stricta'' (Pineland Three-awn), ''Aristida junciformis'' and '' Aristida purpurea'' (Purple Three-awn), o ...

(''Aristida stricta''). In the

Big Thicket The Big Thicket is the name given to a somewhat imprecise region of a heavily-forested area of Southeast Texas in the United States. This area represents a portion of the mixed pine-hardwood forests of southeast US. The National Park Service est ...

of Texas it codominates with

post oak ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to r ...

(''Q. stellata'') and a number of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

s. The oak can be found on sandy soils. It grows downslope from ridgetops, where the soils are finer and less dry than the tops of the ridges. It is well adapted to

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

and grows in habitat where fire is common and often required, such as longleaf pine ecosystems. The oak does not tolerate dense shade and requires fire to remove taller, more robust oaks that would otherwise outcompete it. The acorns provide food for many animal species including the Sherman's fox squirrel, which lives in longleaf pine communities.

Uses

The wood of ''Q. incana'' is hard and strong, but the trees are usually too small to be useful except as fuel or posts.

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4111870 incana Trees of the Southern United States Plants described in 1791