blue oak

Quercus douglasii

Family: Fagaceae.

Type: Deciduous tree.

Branching: Alternate.

Oak Group: White.

Leaves: Leaves are highly variable in shape, from no lobes at all to fairly deeply lobed (although not as deep as the valley oak). Lobes usually have rounded ends; points are observed on some leaves, but the points are not sharp (i.e. they are not bristles). As a white oak, the blue oak's leaves are green on the upper surface and pale on the upper surface. The leaves have a slight bluish cast that is very visible from a distance in contrast to the deeper, richer greens of other trees.

Twig: Bark is a light gray with deep ridges, although its ridges are thinner and its furrows are deeper than those of the valley oak.

Fruit & Flower: Acorn is similar to that of the valley oak, but smaller: long, with the warty cap of a white oak.

Miscellaneous: The blue oak has a beautiful rounded crown, in contrast to the sloppy, droopy crown of the valley oak. It occupies drier ridge tops, and is the oak commonly seen in grasslands west of Yosemite. It is not shade-tolerant.