Quercus margaretiae (Ashe) Small

Sand Post Oak; Margaretta's Oak; Sandhill Post Oak

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Sand Post Oak is a native deciduous tree in the Beech family (Fagaceae). It can be found throughout most of Alabama, but is most abundant in the southern half of the state. Sand Post Oak occurs in sandhills, in scrub oak woods, and in xeric, sandy pine or mixed pine and hardwood forests. It is a small to medium tree reaching heights of 20-60 feet (rarely to 100 feet). It is sometimes rhizomatous and thicket forming. The bark is light gray and forms long, thin plates. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, obovate to spatulate in outline, and lobed. The lobes are rounded and usually two of the uppermost lobes are larger and give the leaf somewhat of a cross shape. The upper surface of the leaf is dark green and glossy, the lower surface is light green and pubescent with stellate hairs. The leaves turn yellowish brown before falling. Male flowers are produced in drooping greenish catkins. Female flowers are sessile or on short peduncles and occur in groups of 1-3. The fruit is a nut. The cup is deep bowl shaped and encloses ½ to ¾ of the acorn. The acorns mature in one year. Sand Post Oak has been treated as a variety or subspecies (Quercus stellata Wangenheim, var. margaretta (Ashe) Sargent) of the Post Oak (Quercus stellata Wangenheim). It differs from the Post Oak in being a smaller tree, having smaller leaves with more rounded lobes and less of a “cross shape”, and by having glabrous twigs. Sand Post Oak is available from some native plant nurseries. It makes an excellent shade tree for small properties and is very drought tolerant once established.--A. Diamond

The epithet honors Margaret Haywood Henry Wilcox who later became the wife W.W. Ashe. Ashe originally published the basionym varietal epithet as "Magaretta" and Small repeated the spelling at the species level as "magaretta". Other subsequent works have spelled the epithet as "margarettae" and "margarettiae". The Botanical Code provides an avenue to correct the spelling that more closely matches the Latinized form of the honoree's name following proper conjugation rules. Thus the epithet has been corrected to "margaretiae" (Weakley and Poindexter 2020).--B.R. Keener

Native

Weakley, A.S., and C.A. McCormick. 2020. in Weakley, A.S., et al. 2020. Studies in the vascular flora of the southeastern United States. VI. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 14: 199-239.