Louisiana Plant ID | Quercus incana (bluejack oak)

FAMILY: FAGACEAE

ALTERNATE COMMON NAMES: sandjack oak, upland willow oak

LEAVES: deciduous, alternate, simple; elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1-4” long by 0.5”-1.5” wide, mostly unlobed, margins entire or with few irregular coarse teeth; leaves blue-green above and gray pubescent below

FLOWER: unisexual, plants monoecious, male flowers in catkins, female flowers inconspicuous, born singly or in few-flowered short axillary spikes

FRUIT: acorn oval, 0.5” long; cupule bowl shaped, pale reddish brown, covering 50% of the acorn

TWIGS: slender, reddish brown when young, eventually darker, pubescent

BARK: blackish rough and blocky

FORM: small tree to ca. 40’ tall and 14” dbh, usually encountered as a much smaller gnarled “scrubby” tree less than 20’ tall

HABITAT: xeric to subxeric sandhills, with or without a pine component

RANGE: southeastern U.S., TX and OK east to VA [USGS Range Map]

USES: not often commercially harvested; ornamental

WILDLIFE: important hard mast for deer, turkey, quail, black bear, and squirrels; succulent sprouts browsed by deer when deer density is high; birds benefit from sparse ground cover under thickets; thickets provide general wildlife cover

Best Recognition Features:

scrubby oak of xeric sandy soils
bark black, rough and blocky
leaves small, unlobed, bluish-green above
the leaf color and scrubby form make this species stand out at a distance

School of Renewable Natural Reources	Louisiana Plant Identification and Interactive Virtual Tours Dr. Chris S. Reid, Project Director \| creid4@lsu.edu LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources LSU AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA © 2003-2020 website problems or broken links: mbowen@agcenter.lsu.edu page revised: 15-Jan-2020 4:11 PM msb	LSU AgCenter
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