Quercus durata

Leather oak

Family: Fagaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Leather oak is a California native shrub found in the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills in chaparral and woodland habitats at elevations of 100 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces small yellowish-green flowers in clusters. Growing as an evergreen shrub 1 to 5 meters tall with tomentose twigs that become glabrous with age, it forms dense, rounded thickets. Its leathery, oblong to elliptic leaves are 1.5 to 3 centimeters long with wavy margins often rolled under, featuring spiny-tipped teeth and a dull green upper surface. The fruit is a distinctive acorn cup 12 to 18 millimeters wide with a bowl-shaped profile and tubercled scales.

California counties: Napa, Mendocino, Lake, El Dorado, San Mateo, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Trinity, Monterey, Marin, Plumas, Tehama, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Los Angeles, Colusa, San Diego, Nevada, Butte, Placer, Glenn, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Stanislaus, Solano, Yuba, San Bernardino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.