Quercus tomentella
species of plant
Quercus tomentella, the island oak, island live oak, or Channel Island oak, is an oak in the section Protobalanus. It is native to six islands: five of the Channel Islands of California and Guadalupe Island, part of Baja California.
It is placed in Quercus section Protobalanus.
Description
Quercus tomentella is an evergreen tree growing up to 20 metres (66 feet) in height, with spreading branches forming a rounded crown. However, the growth habit is variable, with some trees developing narrower crowns, and other becoming wider than they are tall The mature bark is grayish to reddish brown, scaly and furrowed The twigs are reddish and covered in woolly hairs.
The leaves are usually 5-8cm long, with petioles 5-18mm long. The leaf edges are variable: they can be smooth, scalloped or toothed. The leaves have dark glossy green upper surfaces and gray-green, matte undersides coated in wooly hairs, losing them over time. The leathery leaf blades are usually strongly revolute and are an oblong to oblong ovate in shape. The leaves have pinnate lateral veins which are straight and nearly parallel.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Quercus tomentella” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2715180. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Quercus tomentella” 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.