Help IDing this oak?

I collected this oak earlier this year. It was collected in a coastal, sandy area. I've been thinking it was a sand live oak, but now I'm not really sure.



Up close picture of emerging growth, with is peach and green colored, with red tips.

Southwest Florida is a big place, but if you live no further south than Hillsborough County, you have a water oak. The live oak and diamond leaf oak are the only oaks that live farther south than the Tampa area.

JimLewis wrote:Southwest Florida is a big place, but if you live no further south than Hillsborough County, you have a water oak. The live oak and diamond leaf oak are the only oaks that live farther south than the Tampa area.

That's interesting. I am further south than Hillborough. In the are where I collected this oak, the other similar trees took the form of low, sprawling bushes, with numerous trunks. They also appeared to be semi evergreen. I think it may be Quercus minima, or dwarf live oak.

Edit: I may have jumped the gun by saying dwarf live oak. The leaf shape and color is the same, but I can 'tseem to find a picture of Quercus minima that is more than 1-2 feet tall, where most of the trees I saw were between 4-7 feet tall. Could there possibly to be a hybrid between a dwarf live oak and a larger species?

Also, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but the oak in the pictures I posted had it's roots completely cut. This thing is basically a large cutting, and has been doing fine for almost two months. We'll see what happens though.

Our native oaks are a confusing mess of species, subspecies and geographical races...

Russell Coker wrote:



Our native oaks are a confusing mess of species, subspecies and geographical races...

Yeah, I've been gathering that. Do you notice any features that stand out to you? Or anything that might lead you to believe it is one type of oak over another?

Yes, but they are so beautiful Russell.
Stay Well.
Khaimraj

And according to Gil Nelson, author of "Trees of Florida" (which you should have!) oaks can be confusing because they hybridize VERY readily.

If I found it here I'd call it a "water oak", which I believe is technically Q. nigra. In my area there are actually several species and hybrids that get lumped into that common name. Here, they are weedy, fast growing, weak wooded trees that ruin the shape of a live oak and start dying from the inside out at about 60 years old, suck the life out of the landscape around them and come crashing down in storms. Farther north, they seem to be respectable trees without the problems we have here.

In the sand dunes around Ft. Walton Beach, Fl, were I grew up I remember seeing all kinds of odd, shrubby, scrubby oaks with different leaf shapes and colors. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to what they actually were, and never saw most of them anywhere else. Oak nomenclature is a mess.

Russell Coker wrote:


If I found it here I'd call it a "water oak", which I believe is technically Q. nigra. In my area there are actually several species and hybrids that get lumped into that common name. Here, they are weedy, fast growing, weak wooded trees that ruin the shape of a live oak and start dying from the inside out at about 60 years old, suck the life out of the landscape around them and come crashing down in storms. Farther north, they seem to be respectable trees without the problems we have here.

In the sand dunes around Ft. Walton Beach, Fl, were I grew up I remember seeing all kinds of odd, shrubby, scrubby oaks with different leaf shapes and colors. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to what they actually were, and never saw most of them anywhere else. Oak nomenclature is a mess.

Alright. I'll probably just worry about what kind of oak it is at a later date. Good news is, whatever it is, it seems to have a lot of nice traits. I'll have to see about collecting a few more.

Oaks are notorious for hybridizing... very difficult to key. You need the acorn, acorn cap, leaf and bark to get a better guess.