Shrub live oak grows in the mountains of southwestern Colorado
through southern Utah and Nevada to southern California and northern
Mexico [49,91]. It extends eastward to the northwestern
portion of the Trans-Pecos region of western Texas [49]. Shrub
live oak is most abundant in the chaparral
of central Arizona [8,14,63,68]. Quercus turbinella var.
turbinella grows throughout most of the range of the
species as a whole [49]. California shrub live oak grows
from central San Benito County in California southeast in the inner South Coast
Ranges to the mountain slopes near the southern and western borders
of the Mojave Desert [90].
The northern distribution of shrub live oak is limited by
spring freezes and summer moisture stress [57,78].
It is strongly influenced by the "Arizona monsoon gradient," which generates
summer precipitation in the Southwest. Neilson and
Wullstein [57] report that the frequency, intensity, and
extent of late spring freezes, and intensity and
extent of the "Arizona monsoon" appear to be the major factors
controlling successful sexual reproduction in shrub live oak.
Shrub live oak-Gambel oak hybrids have been reported
hundreds of miles north of the present-day range of shrub
live oak in parts of northern Utah and central Colorado
[14,93]. Macrofossil evidence suggests that shrub
live oak migrated northward in the warmer altithermal
(or hypsithermal) period during which the Arizona monsoon
shifted [14,57]. Later climatic shifts to cooler temperatures
presumably eliminated shrub live oak from this northern area,
but the more cold-hardy hybrids survived in some protected
areas [14,30].
201 Blue oak woodland
202 Coast live oak woodland
203 Riparian woodland
206 Chamise chaparral
207 Scrub oak mixed chaparral
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
413 Gambel oak
416 True mountain-mahogany
503 Arizona chaparral
504 Juniper-pinyon pine woodland
509 Transition between oak-juniper woodland and mahogany-oak association
730 Sand shinnery oak
Shrub live oak grows in semiarid, lower elevation chaparral,
pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.), shrub deserts, oak woodlands, ponderosa pine (P.
ponderosa) and riparian communities of the Southwest
[37,87,91,101]. It is a dominant shrub in Arizona chaparral and
frequently comprises up to 50% of the shrub cover on these
sites [42,63]. Published classifications listing shrub live oak as a dominant
or indicator species in community types or plant
associations are presented below.
Forest and woodland habitat types (plant associations) of
Arizona south of the Mogollon Rim and southwestern New Mexico [2]
Vegetation and soils of the Pine and Mathews Canyon watersheds
[5]
Arizona chaparral: plant associations and ecology [9]
Woodland classification: the pinyon-juniper formation [38]
Vegetation of the San Bernardino Mountains [51]
A series vegetation classification for Region 3 [53]
The natural vegetation of Arizona [59]
A vegetation classification system applied to southern California [66]
Plant associations (habitat types) of the forests and
woodlands of Arizona and New Mexico [85]
Vegetation and flora of Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona
[98]
In Arizona chaparral, shrub live oak commonly occurs with pointleaf
manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungens), Pringle manzanita
(A. pringlei), grama (Bouteloua spp.), mountain-mahogany
(Cercocarpus spp.), hollyleaf
buckthorn (Rhamnus crocea), sugar sumac (Rhus ovata),
desert ceanothus (Ceanothus greggii),
Emory oak (Quercus emoryi), yellowleaf silktassel (Garrya flavescens), wait-a-minute
bush (Mimosa biuncifera), yerba-santa (Eriodictyon angustifolium), broom snakeweed
(Gutierrezia sarothrae), and bottlebrush squirreltail
(Elymus elymoides) [16,24,25,42,74,70,79,87].
Common associates of shrub live oak in pinyon-juniper woodlands
include oneseed juniper (J. monosperma), Utah juniper
(J. osteosperma), singleleaf pinyon
(P. monophylla), Colorado pinyon (P. edulis), grama,
and skunkbush sumac (R. trilobata) [19,33].
Related categories for
SPECIES: Quercus turbinella
| Shrub Live Oak
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