Plant Name
Scientific Name: Quercus gambelii
Common Names: Gambel Oak, Gambel's Oak
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Deciduous
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Upland, Mountain. This plant grows in oak and pine woodlands and canyons at middle to upper elevations in the mountains.
Flower Color: Inconspicuous (yellowish, greenish, and brownish)
Flowering Season: Spring
Height: Up to 40 feet (12 m) tall
Description: The plants are monoecious with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The tiny female flowers are either solitary or clustered on small spikes in the leaf axils, while the small male flowers are in drooping catkins. The female flowers are followed by solitary or clustered, plump, egg-shaped to ellipsoid, hard-shelled, green maturing to light brown acorns enclosed in a rough, woody cupule or "cap". The distinctive leaves are large, green, alternate, elliptic in shape, and shallowly to deeply pinnately lobed with large, round-tipped to subacute lobes. The leaves turn a golden yellow or yellow-orange color in the autumn. The bark is rough, scaly, grayish brown, and longitudinally fissured. The trunk and large branches are often a bit gnarled. The twigs are brown to red-brown in color and have brown buds.
Special Characteristics
Allergenic – The flower pollen is a severe allergen.
Edible – The shelled acorns are edible and were eaten by Native Americans, but they may be bitter due to high amounts of tannin and would need to be leached in water to make them palatable.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Hamamelididae
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae – Beech family
Genus: Quercus L. – oak
Species: Quercus gambelii Nutt. – Gambel oak
More About This Plant