Quercus douglasii, BLUE OAK

Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees, Shrubs, and Vines

Quercus douglasii. BLUE OAK. California
FAGACEAE (Oak or beech family)

Native in the immediate vicinity of campus, the deciduous blue oak grows along with coast live oak and valley oak. The leaves are noticeably bluegreen and are lobed shallowly, if at all. Off Santa Teresa Street, there is a parking lot in front of Roble Hall carved out of an original grove of blue oak. A similar grove is up the hill where Lomita Court leaves Lomita Drive. A majestic blue oak is to the right of the Dinkelspiel Auditorium entry stairs; two large specimens at 247 and 267 Santa Teresa Lane guard the front of two faculty homes opposite Governor’s Corner. More blue oaks are in the Tresidder Union parking lot across from the Faculty Club, and they dot the native landscape between Campus Drive West and Sand Hill Road.

Sometimes the leaves of blue oak are lobed so as to resemble valley oak (Q. lobata), but in such cases the dome-shaped habit and modest height (around 40 feet) clearly diferentiates it from the more irregularly picturesque and often gigantic valley oak. It is named after David Douglas (see also Pseudotsuga douglasii).

Illustration: McMinn, Howard E. and Evelyn Maino. 1951. An illustrated manual of Pacific coast trees; with lists of trees recommended for various uses on the Pacific coast by H. W. Shepherd. 2d ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.

Illustrations (links open new windows): Jasper Ridge plant photo archive http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=jrbp Quercus douglasii | wasp gall Antron echinus on blue oak leaf, Jasper Ridge | oak gallery

Additions/Revisions:

Name derivation, genus | species

Related material: Canopy Trees for Palo Alto Tree Library

Botanical name index | Common name index | Family
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Quercus douglasii. BLUE OAK. California FAGACEAE (Oak or beech family)

Quercus douglasii. BLUE OAK. California
FAGACEAE (Oak or beech family)