Cruising through an apartment complex in northwest Austin, I had to stop the car to get out and see this oak close up. It didn't look like any I'd seen around here before. From a distance, I couldn't tell for sure if it was actually an oak or possibly a maple. Closer inspection did reveal that it was an oak, even had a few acorns, but the leaves and form resembled a maple. My guess is that this is a maple-leaf oak (Quercus acerifolia) which would have had to been planted, since that species in native to western Arkansas. The only other possibility is that it could be a hybrid of either Q. buckleyi or Q. shumardii.
Looking around on the ground, I did find 5 viable acorns, so I took those home and soaked them. They all sprouted, and the seedlings are slightly variable in leaf shape and vigor. Time will tell how they look eventually. Variability indicates that they could be a hybrid, but there is not very much, so I just don't know.
There are a lot of immature first year acorns on the tree, meaning that there will be a huge load of acorns for fall of 2013. Red oaks, the group to which this tree belongs, typically take two years to ripen their acorns. I'll be there to collect some when they drop...
There is only one such tree in the area, and I've not seen any other similar ones anywhere ever, other than pictures of the maple-leaf oaks in Arkansas. Could have been mixed in with a batch of Shumard oaks for the landscaping of the apartment complex. Who knows. Definitely a quercus anomaly I'll be keeping my eye on...
Looking around on the ground, I did find 5 viable acorns, so I took those home and soaked them. They all sprouted, and the seedlings are slightly variable in leaf shape and vigor. Time will tell how they look eventually. Variability indicates that they could be a hybrid, but there is not very much, so I just don't know.
There are a lot of immature first year acorns on the tree, meaning that there will be a huge load of acorns for fall of 2013. Red oaks, the group to which this tree belongs, typically take two years to ripen their acorns. I'll be there to collect some when they drop...
There is only one such tree in the area, and I've not seen any other similar ones anywhere ever, other than pictures of the maple-leaf oaks in Arkansas. Could have been mixed in with a batch of Shumard oaks for the landscaping of the apartment complex. Who knows. Definitely a quercus anomaly I'll be keeping my eye on...