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Quercus Arizonica

The Quercus Arizonica is commonly known as Arizona Oak, as well as Arizona White Oak

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Growing Regions

Arizona white oak is distributed from central Arizona to southwestern New Mexico [59,66,77]. Scattered populations occur in western Texas and northern Mexico. In Mexico, the range of Arizona white oak extends from the state of Coahuila westward to Baja California Sur [16,27,39,42,61]. It occurs in fewer than 20 locations in Baja California Sur and is a species of concern in Mexico [40].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of Arizona white oak is Quercus arizonica Sarg. It is a member of the oak family (Fagaceae) [34]. No infrataxa are recognized. Where distributions overlap, Arizona white oak hybridizes with gray oak (Q. grisea), Gambel oak (Q. gambelii), and Mohr shin oak (Q. mohriana) [19,34,61,77,80].

Arizona white oak is found in diverse communities along elevation or
moisture gradients from savannas, semidesert grasslands, and interior
chaparral [10,57] to Madrean evergreen woodland and pine-oak (Pinus
spp.-Quercus spp.) communities [7].  Arizona white oak is codominant
with Emory oak (Q. emoryi) and gray oak in the encinal mixed woodland
series and Madrean evergreen woodland series [9,19,38,52].  Arizona
white oak habitat series occur in savannas of New Mexico [19].  Arizona
white oak is an indicator species in dry Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga
menziesii), Chihuahua pine (Pinus leiophylla var. chihuahuana),
ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), and Apache pine (P. engelmanii) habitat
and community types [1,3,55,63].  Arizona white oak is dominant or
codominant in open and closed-canopy pinyon-juniper (Juniperus spp.)
woodlands [28,53].  Occasionally, Arizona white oak is an important
understory species in pinyon-juniper stands [58] and Mexican pinyon (P.
cembroides) forests [46].  Isolated Arizona white oak occur infrequently
in riparian woodland associations, such as Arizona walnut (Juglans
major) and Arizona sycamore (Platanus wrightii) community types with
permanent or semipermanent streams [43,44,69,73,75].  Arizona white oak
occurs on edges of interior chaparral of Arizona in communities such as
the Arizona white oak-yellowleaf silktassel (Garrya flavescens)-Emory
oak association [11,13,35,63].  Some of the publications in which
Arizona white oak is listed as a dominant or indicator species are:

(1)  Forest and woodland habitat types (plant associations) of Arizona
       south of the Mogollon Rim and southwestern New Mexico [3]
(2)  Forest habitat types south of the Mogollon Rim, Arizona and New
       Mexico [18]
(3)  Classification of mixed broadleaf riparian forest in Tonto National
       Forest [37]
(4)  A series vegetation classification for Region 3 [52]
(5)  A forest habitat type classification of southern Arizona and its
       relationship to forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico [54]
(6)  Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona: a gradient
       analysis of the south slope [82].

Woody species associated with Arizona white oak but not previously
mentioned in Distribution and Occurrence information include Arizona
madrone (Arbutus arizonica), Arizona rosewood (Vaquelina californica),
and coral-bean (Erythrina flabeliformis) [45,55].

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Pavek, Diane S. 1994. Quercus arizonica. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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