DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Quercus chrysolepis | Canyon Live Oak 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Canyon live oak grows from southwestern Oregon through the Coast Ranges
and Sierra Nevada to southern California and the mountains of Mexico
[48,72].  It is the most widely distributed of all California oaks and
occurs across an estimated 1,121,000 acres (453,846 hectares) in
California alone [21].  Canyon live oak is rare east of the
Cascade-Sierra crest but grows discontinuously on the eastern slopes of
the southern and central Sierra Nevada [28].  Scattered, disjunct
populations occur in the mountains of southwestern Nevada and in parts
of western and central Arizona, and Mexico [48,53,91].  Fossil evidence
suggests that this oak was much more widely distributed to the east
during the late Wisconsin and early Holocene [37,53].

The shrubby variety, Q. chrysolepis var. nana, occurs in California from
Trinity County eastward to the Sierra Nevada [63], and throughout the
Coast Ranges of northern California [91].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper


STATES : 
     AZ  CA  NV  OR  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     CHIS  CHIR  JOTR  LAME  ORCA  PORE
     REDW  SEKI  WHSH  YOSE


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    7  Lower Basin and Range
   12  Colorado Plateau


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest
   K030  California oakwoods
   K034  Montane chaparral


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   231  Port Orford - cedar 
   233  Oregon white oak
   234  Douglas-fir - tanoak - Pacific madrone
   243  Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
   244  Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir
   245  Pacific ponderosa pine
   246  California black oak
   248  Knobcone pine
   249  Canyon live oak
   250  Blue oak - Digger pine
   255  California coast live oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
   201  Blue oak woodland
   202  Coast live oak woodland
   203  Riparian woodland


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Canyon live oak occurs in many types of plant communities [63] and is
reportedly found, although sometimes sparingly, in every forest type of
California [8].  It is a common component of mixed-evergreen forests
made up of species such as Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), tanoak
(Lithocarpus densiflorus), chinquapin (Chrysolepsis chrysophylla), and
Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) [91].  Canyon live oak also grows in
chaparral, montane chaparral, oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands, cypress
(Cupressus spp.) stands, and pinyon-juniper-oak (Pinus-Juniperus-Quercus
spp.) woodlands [4,22,45,57,78,80,91,92].  It grows in riparian areas in
parts of California, in oasis woodlands, and in higher elevation desert
communities [31,63,93].  This oak grows intermixed with Douglas-fir in
the north and bigcone Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa) in the south
[49,98].  Canyon live oak occasionally occurs with white fir (Abies
concolor) in higher elevation forests of northern California [91].
Dwarf canyon live oak is most commonly associated with chaparral
[9,63,83].

Canyon live oak is listed as an indicator of dominance or subdominance
in the following community types or plant associations:

Description and classification of the forests of the upper Illinois
  River drainage of southwestern Oregon [1]
The tanoak series of the Siskiyou region of southwest Oregon (Part 2) [2]
Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington [22]
Ecoclass coding for the Pacific Northwest plant associations [30]
Vegetation types of the San Gabriel Mountains [31]
Vegetation types of the San Bernadino Mountains [37]
Vegetation of the San Bernadino Mountains [57]
A vegetation classification system applied to southern California [68]
The vascular plant communities of California [92]
An introduction to the plant communities of the Santa Ana and San
  Jacinto Mountains [99]

Plant associates:  Common conifer associates of canyon live oak, in
addition to those mentioned above, include Jeffrey pine (P. jeffreyi),
Coulter pine (P. coulteri), ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), sugar pine
(P. lambertiana), gray pine (P. sabiniana), and redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens) [1,29,49,59,81].  California black oak (Q. kelloggii),
coast live oak (Q. agrifolia), interior live oak (Q. wislizenii), Oregon
white oak (Q. garryana), Pacific madrone, bigleaf maple (Acer
macrophyllum), tanoak, and California bay (Umbellularia californica) are
among the most commonly associated hardwoods [17,29,49,72,100].
Understories are often extremely depauperate on steep, harsh, rocky
sites characterized by pure stands of canyon live oak [49].  The
following species are typical understory associates on less severe
sites:  rose (Rosa spp.), Ceanothus spp., creeping snowberrry
(Symphoricarpos mollis), manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), gooseberry
(Ribes spp.), serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), sumac (Rhus spp.),
raspberries (Rubus spp.), dogwood (Cornus spp.), hazel (Corylus cornuta
var. californica), California wild grape (Vitus californica), ninebark
(Physocarpus spp.), mockorange (Philadelphus lewisii), monkey-flower
(Mimulus spp.), prairie sagewort (Aralia californica), common viburnum
(Viburnum ellipiticum), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), and buckthorn
(Rhamnus spp.) [8,49,87].

Related categories for Species: Quercus chrysolepis | Canyon Live Oak