VI. AGBOSTEDEAE
2- BETULA L. BIRCH
Small tree or large shrub with slender stems; sterile flowers 3 to each shield-shaped scale of the catkin; fertile flowers 2 or 3 to each 3-lobed bract, the bracts thin, decidu- ous; fertile catkins ovoid to cylindric.
1. Betula fontinalis Saig. Rot. Gaz. 81: 239. 1901.
Betula mkrophylla fontinalis Jones, Contr. West. Bot. IS: 77. 1908.
Type locality: "On the Sweetwater, one of the branches of the Platte."
Range: British America to Colorado and New Mexico.
New Mexico: San Juan Valley; Tunitcha Mountains; Paquate. Along streams, in the Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.
164 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM
3. ALNUS Hill. Alder.
Shrubs or small trees with thin toothed leaves; sterile catkins with 4 or 5 bract- lets and 3 flowers upon each scale; fertile catkins ovoid or ellipsoid, the scales each subtending 2 flowers and a group of 4 small scales, the latter becoming woody in
fruit, wedge-obovate.
KEY TO THE SPECIES.
Leaves rounded to truncate at the base, somewhat lobed, ovate to
broadly oblong; stamens 4... 1. A. tenuifolia.
Leaves usually cuneate or at least narrowed at the base, seldom lobed, the younger ones lanceolate, the older elliptic or ob-
long; stamens I to 3, usually 2 2, A.oblongifolia.
1. Alnus tenuifolia Nutt. N. Amer. Sylv. 1: 32.1842.
Type locality: "On the borders of small streams within the Range of the Rocky Mountains, and afterwards in the valleys of the Blue Mountains of Oregon."
Range : British America to California and New Mexico.
New Mexico: Tunitcha Mountains; Cedar Hill; Chama; Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains. Along streams, in the Transition Zone.
The powdered bark of the alder, together with ashes of Juniperus monosperma and a decoction of Cercocarpus montanw, were used by the Navahos in preparing a red dye for wool.
2. AIiiub oblongifolia Torr. U. S. & Mex. Bound. Bot. 204. 1859.
Alnus acuminate, H. B. K, err. det. many authors.
Type locality: Banks of the Mimbres and near Santa Barbara, New Mexico.
Type collected by Wright (no. 1864).
Range: Southern Arizona and New Mexico.
New Mexico: Magdalena Mountains; Mogollon Mountains; Black Range. Along streams, in the Transition Zone.
33. FAGACEAE. Beech Family.
1. QUERCTJS L. Oak.
Low shrubs or large trees with rough bark on the older stems and hard tough wood;
leaves chlorophyll green and deciduous, or bluish or grayish green and persistent almost or quite until the appearance of the leaves of the following season, of various shapes, size, and texture, generally short-petioled, mostly more or less stellate- pubescent at some time; flowers monoecious, the stain mate usually in slender pendu- lous amenta, the pistillate solitary or in few-flowered spikelike amenta, appearing with the leaves; fruit (acorn) a nut varying in shape and size with the species, the cup being also of varying size and shape.
The treatment here given follows that of Doctor Rydberg,1 and much of the work was done in consultation with him, while examining a rather extended series of New Mexican specimens. The species listed cover the material at New York and Wash- ington and that in the herbarium of the New Mexico Agricultural College. With the use of this material is combined the field experience of Doctor Rydberg and the authors, extending over a number of years of careful study of the genus.
The attitude here assumed is that forms represented by numerous individuals that are easily distinguishable in the field and herbarium are worthy of separate names.
Whether one calls them species or subspecies matters little; we prefer the former and the forms are so treated here.
1 The Oaks of the Continental Divide. Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 2:187. 1901.
WOOTON AND STANDLEY—FLORA OF NEW MEXICO. 165
There are several well-marked groups of closely-related species, the most conspicuous of which is that clustered about Q. gambelii, including Q. utahensis, Q. submollis, Q.
gunnisonii, Q. vreelandii, Q. novomexicana, and Q. leptophylla, all of which have green deciduous leaves of much the same texture and outline with varying degrees of pubescence. Another group is that consisting of shrubs of small or large size (never forming trees) of the higher mountains, having more or less persistent blue green leaves—Q. undulata, Q, fendleri, Q, rydbergiana. Yet another well-marked group contains the low trees of the southern part of the State, occurring among the rocks and canyons of the drier and hotter mountains. These are Q. grisea, Q. arizonica, and Q. reticulata, Hie last being a large tree in the mountains of New Mexico. A single chestnut oak, known from two stations, is Q. muhlenbergii, a most unexpected find.
The affiliations of the other species arc not so easily seen, each species standing more or less by itself in New Mexico.
Acorns of the different oaks were formerly used by the Indians as food. They were boiled or roasted or sometimes dried and ground into flour.
KEY TO THE SPECIES.
Acorns sericeous-tomentose inside, maturing the second year 1. Q. hypolmca.
Acorns not sericeous-tomentose inside, maturing the first year.
Leaves bluish, grayish, or yellowish green (never bright chlorophyll green), more or less coriaceous, mostly persisting until the appearance of new leaves, hence the plant leafy all the time.
Leaves not persisting; medium-sized shrub 2. Q. fendleri.
Old leaves persisting till after the appearance of the young ones; shrubs or trees.
Mature plants shrubs, never trees.
Plant about 1 meter high, with very small
acorns and leaves 4. Q. rydbergiana.
Plants more than a meter high, the leaves and acorns large.
Leaves fulvous beneath; cup turbinate 6. Q. turbinella.
Leave* not fulvous beneath; cup hemis- pheric.
Leaves only moderately coriaceous, neither spinulose-toothed nor
crisped... 3. Q. undulata.
Leaves strongly coriaceous, much
crisped and spinulose-toothed... 5. Q. pungens.
Mature plants trees (shrubby forms immature, usually not fruiting).
Scales of the cup thin, only slightly corky- thickened on the back; mature leaves yellowish green.
Leaves of the same color on both surfaces.. 7. Q. ernoryi.
Leaves fulvous beneath, especially when
young 8. Q. wilcoxii.
Scales of the cup corky-thickened on the back;
leaves fulvous beneath, glabrate above.
A corns large; mature leaves all more or less conspicuously toothed (resembling
those of Q.fendleri) 9. Q. confusa.
166 CONTRIBUTIONS PROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM.
Acorns of medium size; only the younger leaves conspicuously toothed.
Leaves large, obovate, strongly reticu-
late; teeth small and numerous 13. Q. reiiculata.
Leaves of medium size, oblong, only slightly reticulate, entire or with few coarse teeth.
Leaves and twigs of the year glabrous in age; leaves rarely with any
teeth.. - 10. Q, oblongifolia.
Leaves permanently and densely stellate-pubescent beneath, as also the twigs of the year; leaves various.
Cup shallow; acorn acute 12. Q. arizonica.
Cup deep, covering one-third the
acorn; acorn truncate or obtuse. 11. Q. grisea.
Leaves chlorophyll green, not coriaceous, deciduous in the fall, hence the plants leafless in the winter.
Leaves coarsely serrate-toothed with numerous teeth
from base to apex, not truly lobed 14. Q. muhlenberpii.
Leaves more or less sinuately lobed.
Low shrubs, never forming trees; leaves small, 7 cm.
long or less.
Lobes few and shallow, appearing as a few largo teeth; some of the leaves obovate in
outline 15. Q, media.
Lobes deep and more numerous; leaves oblong in outline.
Acorns very large, 25 mm. long; a plant of
the southeastern sandhills 16. Q, havardii.
Acorns small, 10 mm. long or less, racemose;
plant of the mountains of the northern
part of the State.. 17. Q. venusluUi.
Taller shrubs or trees with large, deeply lobed leaves mostly 10 cm. long or more.
Mature leaves soft-pubescent and almost velvety beneath.
Scales of the cup thin, little thickened on the back; leaves distinctly obovate
in outline 18. Q. gubmollia.
Scales of the cup thickened on the back;
leaves mostly oblong, only slightly
broadened upward 19. Q. utaheruis.
Mature leaves not velvety beneath, usually glabrate, sometimes slightly pubescent, especially on the veins.
Cup saucer-shaped, covering less than one-
fourth of the acorn 20. Q. vreelandii.
Cup hemispheric, covering one-third to half the acorn.
Acorns ovoid, acute; cup covering
about half the acorn 24. Q. gambelii.
WOOTON AND STANDLEY—FLORA OF NEW MEXICO. 167
Acorns barrel-shaped, obtuse; cup various.
Mature leaves thin, large, obovate, cuneate, dark green above; acorn very short, frequently more than
half in the cup 21. Q. leptophylla.
Mature leaves firm, deeply lobed;
acorns longer, about one-third in the cup.
Leaves oblong, lobed half way to the midrib, dull-colored; lobes
usually simple 22. Q. gunntsonii.
Leaves obovate, lobed more than half way to the midrib, dark green above; lobes frequently
again lobed 23. Q. nowmexicana.
1. Quercus hypoleuca Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 3: 384. 1876.
White-leap oak.
Type locality: Arizona.
Range: Southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Common from the Black Range and the Mogollon Mountains south to the Mexican border. Low dry mountains, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
One of the two easily recognizable species of the State, occurring only in the moun- tains of the southwestern part. It becomes a tree 10 meters high or occasionally higher, but is frequently found as a small bush forming clumps. The leaves are characteristic, being very thick and leathery, oblong-lanceolate, entire or with a few coarse teeth near the apex, yellowish green and glabrous above, densely white-woolly beneath.
The tree is well worth cultivation for decorative purposes.
2. Quercus fendleri Liebm. Overs. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Forh. 1864:170. 1854.
FENDLER OAK.
Quercus undulata A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 16s: 23.1864, in part.
Quercus undulata pedunculata A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 16s: 23.1864.
Qtiercus undulata Saig. Silv. N. Amer. 8: 75.1895, in part.
Type locality: New Mexico, probably near Santa Fe. Type collected by Fendler (no. 805).
Range: Southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and Arizona, and in the Pan- handle region of Texas.
New Mexico: Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains; Raton; £1 Rito Greek; Ramah;
Sandia Mountains; East View; Gallinas Mountains; White and Sacramento mountains;
Buchanan; Duran. Drier mountains, in the Transition Zone.
This is very near Quercus undulata, with which it is usually geographically asso- ciated , being separated from that species merely by size of the parts and the persistence of the leaves. It is practically impossible to distinguish ordinary herbarium speci- mens showing leaves and fruit. Doctor Rydberg's key puts them in two different subsections on the ground of persistence of leaves, thus throwing Q. undulata next
Q. pungent, which has a very different zonal distribution in New Mexico.
3. Quercus undulata Torr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. 2: 248.1828.
Quercus undulata jamesii Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 3 : 382.1876.
Type locality: "Sources of the Canadian and the Rocky Mountains,'' Colorado or New Mexico.
Range: Northern New Mexico and Arizona and southern Colorado, and western Texas.
New Mexico: Glorieta; 25 miles south of Gallup; Pajarito Park; East View; Gallinas Mountains; Buchanan; Duran; Guadalupe Mountains; Sierra Grande; Organ Moun- tains. Drier mountains, in the Transition Zone, extending down into the Upper Sonoran.
168 CONTBIBUTTONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM
What is here accepted ae Quercus undulata is a low, straggling shrub 1 to 3 meters high, with small oblong leaves 3 to 5 em. long, their margins sinuate-dentate, the teeth few and distinctly cuspidate but not spinulose. The leaves are firm but not coriaceous, and Doctor Rydberg believes them to be blue green, although from the type specimen and the description it is impossible to determine this. However, this is the common type of plant having the other characteristics ascribed to the species that is to be found in eastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, the region from which the type came.
The plant here accepted is one of the two common shrubs having blue green leaves in the mountains of the northern part of the State. It also occurs as a low shrub high up on the peaks of the dry, rocky mountains of the southern part, a thousand feet or more above the common live oaks of that region. The acorns are rather small, 10 to 15 mm. long, in a thickened, hemispherical cup.
4. Quercus rydbergiana Cockerell, Torreya 3: 7.1903.
Quercus undulata rydbergiana Cockerell, Torreya 3 : 86. 1903.
Type locality : Las Vegas Hot Springe, New Mexico. Type collected by Cockerell.
Range: Mountains of the north central part of New Mexico.
New Mexico: Las Vegas Mountains; Cebolla Springs. Transition Zone.
A small bush, 1 meter high or less, with small (2 to .4 cm, long), oblong, bluish green leaves with a few coarse sinuate lobelike teeth. The acorns are very small, less than 1 cm. long, in a shallow cup whose scales are very small, numerous, and somewhat thickened on the back.
This certainly is a relative, of what is here regarded as Q. undulata, and Professor Cockerell may be right in reducing it to a subspecies of that, but it is more easily separable from Q. undulata than is Q. fendleri and is more distinct than the various species or subspecies, as one chooses to consider them, that are grouped around Q.
gambelii. There is little doubt that the various Rocky Mountain species hybridize readily, as seems to be the case with the eastern members of the genus.
6. Quercus pungens Liebm. Overs. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Forh. 1854:171.1854.
Quercus undulata -wrightii Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 3: 382.1876, in part.
Quercus undulata pungens Engelm. Trans, Acad. St. Louis 3: 392. 1876.
Type locality: "Texas & Nov. Mexico.—California."
Range: Western Texas, New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Sandia Mountains; Mangas Springs; Silver City; Black Range;
Big Hatchet Mountains; Dona Ana Mountains; mountains west of Son Antonio;
Carrizalillo Mountains; Organ Mountains; Queen; Socorro Mountain. Dry, rocky mountains, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
A scrubby bush, 2 to 3 meters high, with small, coriaceous, spiny-toothed leaves on rather slender branches. Doctor Rydberg may be right in his belief that it is most closely related to Q. undulata, but it seems to be allied with Q. toumeyi and Q. turbinella.
It is possible that the specimens referred in this treatment to Q. turbinella more properly belong to this species.
6. Quercus turbinella Greene, W. Amer. Oaks 1: 37.1889.
Type locality: Mountains of Lower California.
Range: Lower California to southwestern New Mexico and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Bear Mountain; Socorro; Magdalena Mountains; Cook Spring.
Dry hills, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
A shrub (or low tree ?) with small (1 to 3 cm. long), oblong, elliptic, or oval leaves, bluish green above, fulvous beneath, sinuate-dentate wth spiny teeth. The acorn is elongated, acute, with a turbinate cup whose scales are only slightly thickened.
It is possible, not to say probable, that further study in the field will show that true Q. turbinella, which was named from the Californian peninsula, does not come into New Mexico at all.
WOOTON AND STANDLEY-—FLORA OF NEW MEXICO. 169
7. Quercua emoxyi Torr. in Emory, Mil. Reconn. 152.1848. Black oak.
Quercus haatata Liebm. Overe. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Forh. 1854:171. 1854.
Type localitt: '' Common on the elevated country between the Del Norte and the Gila," New Mexico. The type specimen is from Pigeon Greek (Las Palomas), and was collected by Emory.
Range: Mountains of southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, extreme western Texas, and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Kingston; Bear Mountains; Animaa Mountains; San Luis Mountains;
Fort Bayard. Upper Sonoran Zone, occasionally extending down into the Lower Sonoran.
This is the common black oak of the southwestern part of the State and is easily recognizable. It deserves its name, since the bark is black and thick. The leaves are pale yellowish green, of about the same color on both surfaces, more or less yellow- - ish brown pubescent on the main nerves, oblong, fiat, not crispate, coarsely sinuate- dentate with spinulose teeth. The acorns are small and acute, with a shallow cup having pale yellowish brown scales not thickened on the back. They are produced early in the season and are much appreciated by the animals of the region. The species shows a tendency to hybridize.
Quercua emoxyi X pungens.
A specimen from the Rio Frisco, near Alma, collected in 1906 by Vernon Bailey (no. 1058), has the acorn cup of Q. pwigens, the acorn elongated and acute as in Q.
emoryi, while the leaves are intermediate between those of the two species.
8. Quercus wilcoxii Rydb. Bull. N. Y. Bot. Card. 2: 227.1901.
Type locality: Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Range: Mountains of southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and adjacent Mexico.
Ns:w Mexico: San Luis Mountains; Animas Peak; Bear Mountain; Bui lards Peak.
Upper Sonoran Zone.
Mature plants of this species are medium-sized trees, though the young plants often are low and shrubby and form a moderately thick growth on the mountain sides. It is probable that some of the material here referred to Q. pungens is from young plants of Q. ivilcoxii. The latter species reaches only the extreme southwestern border of the State. Mature leaves on fruiting trees are mostly elliptic and abruptly acute, very coriaceous, and with involute margins. Leaves on sterile shoots are crisped and have several coarse, triangular, strongly spiny teeth. All the leaves are distinctly yellow to tawny beneath when young, but the pubescence disappears, leaving them whitish or pale. The leaves are a yellowish or grayish green when growing.
The species includes the material from southeastern Arizona and the adjacent country which has passed as Q. chryaolepis. It is readily recognized by the acorns, the Californian species having an acorn easily three times as large as that of Q. wilcoxii, with a very much thickened cup.
6. Quercus confusa Woot. & Stand 1, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 116. 1913.
Type locality: On Ruidoso Creek, 5 miles east of Ruidoso Post Office, New Mexico.
Type collected by Wooton, August 5, 1901.
Range: White Mountains of New Mexico, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
A moderately large tree, 5 to 7 meters high, with oblong, sinuate-dentate leaves almost velvety beneath with yellowish stellate hairs; acorns 20 to 23 mm. long, barrel- shaped, obtuse, about 3 times as long as the cup.
This species is most nearly related to Q. fendleri, from which it differs in being a tree, having still larger leaves (persistent?) of the same general type, and in having a larger acorn. It occurs at a lower level than is common for Q, fendleri, being at home in the Upper Sonoran instead of the Transition Zone, although the latter sometimes comes into the Upper Sonoran.
170 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM
10. Quercus oblongifolia Torr. in Sitgreavee, Rep. Zuni & Colo. 173. 1853.
Type locality: "Western New Mexico." Arizona was a part of New Mexico at thiq time and, as the expedition started from what ia now extreme western New Mexico, tli in locality must have been in western Arizona.
Range: Western and southern Arizona, southeastern California, southwestern New Mexico, and adjacent Sonora.
New Mexico: Dog Spring; Guadalupe Canyon. Mountains, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
This species has frequently been confused with Q. undulata, Q. grisea, and Q- ari- zonica. The characters used in the key will separate these species at once. This is not at all closely related to the first-named species, but very near the other two. When mature it is a low, spreading tree of the live-oak type with oblong leaves which are wholly glabrous, as are the young twigs.
11. Quercus grisea Liebm. Overs. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Forh. 1854: 171. 1854.
Quercus undulala grisea Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 3: 393.1877.
Type locality; "Texas. Nov. Mexico pr. el Paso." The type is Wright's 665 from western Texas.
Range: Western Texas, New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Sandia Mountains; Santa Clara Canyon; Magdalena Mountains;
Bear Mountain; Florida Mountains; near Hermosa; Organ Mountains; Guadalupe Mountains; White Mountains; Llano Estacado; San Luis Mountains; Kingston; Burro Mountains. Drier, rocky foothills of the mountains, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
New Mexico seems to be the region in which Q. grisea and Q. arizonica meet, the former coming in from Texas and the latter from Arizona. They are closely related species, possibly too closely for convenient separation, but there are slight differences in the general form of the trees, hard to describe but moderately easy to see, and the acorns are noticeably different.
Generally speaking, Q. grisea is a low scrubby tree (young ones which do not yet bear forming much of the scrub oak of the lower slopes of the mountains in the southern part of the State), small groups of which growing in open canyons or on slopes fre- quently give the impression of an old apple orchard. Q. arizonica is usually a larger tree, though never with a very tall trunk. It is commonly much branched from near the base and wide spreading.
Quercus grisea is variously confused by different authors with Q. undulata, a low shrub of the mountains of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, and with Q. oblongifoliat a tree from farther west.
Quercus grisea X emoryi.
A large, round-topped tree with dark gray trunk and limbs, and slender young twigs with dense, yellowish, stellate pubescence; young leaves yellowish green,
becoming gray-green and glabrous above; most of the leaves oblong, entire, some with a few coarse, spinulose teeth, their texture subcoriaceous, thinner than in either of
the species; young fruit with the cup of Q. grisea.
Collected on the Rio Frisco near Lone Pine, in 1904, by E. O. Wooton (no. 3115).
This may prove to be a new species, rather than a hybrid.
10. Quercus arizonica Sarg. Gard. & For. 8: 92.1895. Arizona oak.
Type locality: Southern Arizona.
Ranges: Southern New Mexico and Arizona and adjacent Mexico.
New Mexico: Santa Clara Canyon; Mogollon Mountains; Bear Mountain; Black Range; Burro Mountains; Big Hatchet Mountains; San Luis Mountains; Lordsbuig;
Animas Mountains; Organ Mountains; Oscuro Mountains; Oapitan Mountains; White Mountains. Lower parts of drier mountains, in the Upper Sonoran Zone.
This and Q. grisea are the common live oak trees of the drier and lower mountains of the southern part of the State. They are commonly found among the rocks and