General: Shrub Live Oak (Quercus turbinella) is a medium-sized, many branched subtree with acorns and small, stiff leaves with pointed lobes and sharp spines on the tip of each lobe. Compare with the leaves of Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelii).

Shrub Live Oak is a fairly common component of vegetation communities in rocky canyons and middle-elevation washes and slopes in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) and Transition (Yellow Pine Forest) life zones. Where it occurs, however, it generally occurs in dense thickets.

Family: Oak (Fagaceae).

Other Names: scrub oak, live oak, Sonoran scrub oak.

Plant Form: Many branched, evergreen tree or subtree.

Height: 6 to 15 feet (to 20 feet)

Bark: Gray to brown.

Leaves: Small (1 inch), oblong, stiff leaves with pointed lobes and sharp spines at the tip of each lobe. Upper surface gray-green; lower surface with yellowish hairs.

Flowers: Flowers produced in the spring. Staminate inflorescence is a catkin. Pistillate flowers inconspicuous, but later produce acorns.

Seeds: Acorns. Fruit green, maturing to brown in 1 year. Caps remain attached to stems long after the acorns drop. The inside of the cap is smooth. Fruits mature in summer and fall of the year they emerge (no overwintering acorns).

Habitat: Rocky canyons and slopes in middle-elevation mountains.

Elevation: 4,000 to 6,500 feet.

Distribution: Southwestern U.S. and Baja California.

Comments: Shrub oaks hybridize, sometimes making exact identification difficult. Acorns are important food for many species of wildlife, including deer, mice, and birds.