Skip to main content

Turbinella Oak

Turbinella Oak, our August Tree of the month remains discounted 15% through August. Come in and get one today and save! Read below for a full description of this great landscaping tree.

Turbinella Oak (Quercus turbinella) or scrub live oak, is a New Mexico Native evergreen tree.  Its wild form is a short sprawling shrub or small tree reaching 12’ - 15’ tall.


Wild form is also multi-trunked.


You would never guess it was an Oak species by looking at its leaves. Turbinella Oak has thick grayish-green leaves that lack the lobes of most oaks. Their leaves are more similar to a holly with its pointed leaf margins.


Its dense branch and leaf structure provides shelter for wildlife.


This naturally dense canopy makes it useful in the landscape as a visual and wind barrier for those allergic to more conventional screening plants like the Junipers.


Like Junipers, Turbinella Oak can be pruned to shape or conform to landscaping requirements.


It is common at lower elevations, where the mountain meets the mesa, of the central mountain chain southward and into the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. It is found growing in association with junipers, prickly pear,


tree cholla, pinyon pine, Mahonia, and a larger evergreen oak, Quercus grisea, or Gray Oak.


Turbinella Oak is a member of the white oak family. It will hybridize with other white oak species that overlap it’s wild range such as the Gray Oak (Quercus grisea), Arizona White Oak (Quercus arizonica), Sandpaper Oak (Quercus pungens), and Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelli).


Turbinella Oak produces acorns that ripen during July and August.


Acorns fall to the ground coinciding with the arrival of the summer monsoons.


Turbinella Oak is a useful tree for New Mexico Landscapes. It is low water, heat and drought tolerant, deep rooted, and if pruned to a single trunk can reach 20′ or more. Normally slow growing on the west facing foothills of the Central Mountain chain of New Mexico, Turbinella Oak can grow 2’ – 4’ annually with regular watering (new growth around canopy below).


Turbinella Oak is best grown in well-drained soils and is hardy to USDA  zone 5.


To view Turbinella Oak in its native habitat and to see how it might be used in the landscape as a visual barrier, please click the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TI5nyko1Ys&feature=channel&list=UL


Contact Trees That Please Nursery for more information, availability, and pricing.

Photos & Narrative By:
Stephen Sain
Staff Plant Physiologist

Comments

Desert Dweller said…
Great plant - living around them, a favorite plant way ahead of it's time in Abq. That's unfortunate and I just don't get it! Thanks for pointing out all the attributes of it.

I think one of the problems with all the northeastern and midwestern horticultural mindset here is part why people don't think those are oaks, with those leaves!
July 31, 2012 at 6:06 PM
Trees That Please Nursery said…
Thanks for your comment!
It absolutely is a great plant! Colorful year-round, doesn't get too big, and with our need for low water landscaping plants it is a genuine winner!
August 1, 2012 at 2:22 PM
Tree Removal Service Birmingham AL said…
Visiting this blog is our real pleasure. Should like to thank for sharing such a useful information.
July 5, 2013 at 3:43 AM
Unknown said…
Wow. I really interested to your post. It is really impressive. You gave me a lot of information about it.All of them are amazing. Thanks.
Tree Cutting Service Birmingham AL
August 26, 2013 at 4:05 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weed Identification: Goatheads or Stickers

Goatheads ( Tribulus terrestris ) are native to Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Goatheads are also called stickers, sticker weed, bullhead, devil’s weed, and puncturevine. Goatheads are easily recognized by their prostrate growth form, leaves with leaflets, yellow flowers, and stickers (Goatheads). If you miss’em visually then they will stab you painfully in the fingers as you work your garden, or stick to your clothing and shoes. Goatheads are the primary reason local bicyclists must get “thorn proof” tires for riding on area trails and streets. Goatheads have prostrate stems that radiate outward from one central point. Leaves are compound with smaller leaflets. Lemon yellow flowers form along the stems and fertilized flowers form fruits.   Fruits consist of several attached structures called nutlets (Goatheads). Each nutlet is a single seed that becomes hard or woody when mature. Each seed has two sharp spines that easily pene...
1 comment
Read more

Weed Identification: Sand Bur

Sand Bur ( Cenchrus longispinus ) is native to North America. It has other names like sand spur, long-spined sand bur, hedgehog grass, and bur grass . Sand Bur is an annual grass usually growing with a prostrate growth form. It is similar in appearance to other grasses prior to seed formation. Individual plants may be 3’ in diameter, sometimes larger. Sand Bur is a common weed of sandy soils but also grows well elsewhere. Sand Bur will often root at stem nodes that are touching the ground. The root system of Sand Bur is shallow and fibrous making them easily pulled (when immature). Sand Bur produces a flowering spike. As seeds begin to form Sand Bur is easily recognized by its numerous sharp or burred seeds or long spines. As the burred seeds mature they are easily separated from the mother plant and their sharp spines stick to virtually anything. Sand Bur can disseminate its seeds long distances because its sharp spines will hitch a ride on skin, anim...
5 comments
Read more

All About the Shantung Maple!

             The Shantung Maple ( Acer truncatum ) is also known as the Purple Blow Maple due to the color of its newly emerging leaves which are red-purple (see photo below). These young expanding red-purple leaves change to green as they mature. Leaves are small, about the size of Japanese Red Maple leaves, perhaps 3’-4’ wide at maturity.    The Shantung Maple grows 1′-2′ annually reaching 25″ tall and wide.    This is our tree for all planting situations. This Maple does well in heavy clay, sandy soils, full sun, or part shade. It can be planted in a lawn or next to a hot asphalt street (see photo below). It seemingly is a happy tree enjoying life wherever it is placed.    One place we would not recommend planting this tree is in a rockscape which is just too hot and inhospitable to support this beautiful tree.               A smaller tree, the Shantung Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more