Quercus pacifica

Island scrub oak, Island Scrub Oak

Family: Fagaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Island scrub oak is a California native shrub ranked 4.2 by CNPS, found on the Channel Islands including Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and Santa Catalina islands in chaparral, coastal scrub, oak woodland, and pine forest at elevations below 610 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces small flowers in delicate clusters, developing distinctive acorn fruits. Growing as an evergreen shrub up to 2 meters tall with finely hairy, reddish-brown twigs that become gray with age, it forms dense, compact growth. Its leaves are obovate or oblong, 1.5 to 4 centimeters long, with a green upper surface and lighter green underside covered in minute stellate hairs, featuring entire or slightly wavy margins. The acorn cups are hemispheric and 8 to 20 millimeters wide, with moderately tubercled scales, producing ovoid nuts 20 to 30 millimeters long.

Habitat: Slopes, ridges, canyons, chaparral, coastal scrub, oak woodland, pine forest

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 610 m

Bioregions: ChI (Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Catalina islands).

California counties: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz

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