Scrub Oak, California Scrub Oak, Inland Scrub Oak         KWER-kus

• Evergreen shrubs or small trees 3-15 ft (0.9-4.5 m) tall; bark gray, scaly.  Twigs usually gray or yellowish, sometimes reddish, 1-3 mm thick; densely packed twigs and leaves can from an almost impenetrable barrier.  Leaves simple, alternate, leathery, obovate to elliptic, 15-30 mm long, base truncate or rounded, apex rounded or acute, margins irregularly toothed or spiny, upper surface green, flat to wavy, lower surface grayish green and slightly hairy; petiole 2-4 mm long.  Fruit (acorns) solitary or paired, brown, egg-shaped, 1-3 cm long, cup hemispheric or turbine like, 8-15 mm deep, enclosing 1/3 to 1/2 of the nut.
• Sun to light shade, needs well-drained soil.  Drought resistant.
• Hardy to USDA Zone (7)8      Native to California, found in the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada and southern California mountains and into Baja California.  It hybridizes with a number of other oaks, including the Oregon White Oak (Q. garryana and Valley Oak (Q. lobata).
• berberidifolia: with leaves like those of Berberis, the barberry.