Quercus subg. Quercus
subgenus of plants
Quercus subgenus Quercus is one of the two subgenera into which the genus Quercus was divided in a 2017 classification (the other being subgenus Cerris). It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be called the New World clade or the high-latitude clade; most species are native to the Americas, the others being found in Eurasia and northernmost North Africa.
Description
Members of subgenus Quercus are distinguished from members of subgenus Cerris by few morphological features, their separation being largely determined by molecular phylogenetic evidence. All are trees or shrubs bearing acorn-like fruit in which a cup covers at least the base of the nut. The outer structure of the mature pollen is one feature that distinguishes the two subgenera: in subgenus Quercus, the small folds or wrinkles (rugulae) are obscured by sporopollenin, whereas in subgenus Cerris, the rugulae are visible or at most weakly obscured.
The two subgenera are also distinguished to some extent by their different distributions. Subgenus Quercus occurs mainly in the Americas, with some species native to Eurasia and North Africa, and may be called the New World clade or the high-latitude clade. Subgenus Cerris is primarily Eurasian, with a few species in North Africa, and may be called the Old World clade or the mid-latitude clade.
Taxonomy
Phylogeny
The following cladogram summarizes the relationships that Denk et al.
“Quercus subg. Quercus” enters the record as subgenus of plants. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Quercus, subg and subgenus can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Quercus subg. Quercus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.