Quercus × leana
Common name:
Lea's Oak
Pronunciation:
kwer-KUS le-AH-na
Family:
Fagaceae
Genus:
Synonyms:
Lea Oak
Type:
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon:
No
- Broadleaf deciduous tree, usually to about 40-60 ft (12-18 m) tall, conical shape when young; bark shallowly ridged. Leaves alternate, simple, 10-18cm long, oblong to obovate; thick and rather leathery, variable in shape and pubescence, margin wavy and entire, weakly lobed to 1-4 pointed lobes, bristle-tipped, apex sometimes tri-lobed, base rounded, lustrous dark green above, dull beneath with rusty hairs along midrib; petiole 1.5-2 cm. Flowers are yellowish-green and appear in separate male and female catkins in spring as leaves emerge. Fruit (acorns) rounded, to about 2 cm long and partly enclosed, to half their length, by a scaly cup; they ripen in the fall of the second year.
- Leaves of this hybrid mostly resemble the leaves of its shingle oak parent and the acorns resemble the acorns of its black oak parent (Missouri Botanical Garden).
- Sun to light shade, best in acidic soils, drought tolerant
- Hardy to USDA Zone 5 . Quercus × leana is a hybrid cross between Quercus imbricaria (shingle oak) and Quercus velutina (black oak). It may be found in the wild as a naturally occurring hybrid in locations scattered around the midwestern U. S. where the ranges of the parent trees coincide (Missouri to Pennsylvania south to North Carolina and Arkansas)(Missouri Botanical Garden).
- leana: in honor of Thomas G. Lea (1785-1844), American businessman and armature botanist who discovered this hybrid growing near Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1830s. He is the author of, Catalogue of plants, native and naturalized, collected in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio, during the years 1834-1844 (1849).