General: Canyon Live Oak (Quercus chrysolepis) is a fairly large, tree-like oak with small, spiny leaves (the other oak with small, spiny leaves, Shrub Live Oak, is more shrub-like). This tree hybridizes with other oaks, sometimes making exact identification difficult.

Canyon Live Oak is an uncommon component of vegetation communities along washes and in desert canyons and north-facing slopes in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones. Look for this species in Caruthers Canyon (Mojave National Preserve and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

Family: Oak (Fagaceae).

Other Names: Maul oak.

Plant Form: Upright, many branched, rounded, evergreen tree.

Height: Usually to about 20 feet; to 65 feet.

Trunk: Single trunk branches early producing a rounded tree.

Bark: Narrowly furrowed, scaly, light gray.

Stems:

Leaves: Variable: long and narrow to short and wide. Blade 1 to 2-inches long, stiff, oblong to round, margin with or without lobes and spines; upper surface dark green, lower surface lighter. This tree is distinguished from similar species by multiradiate trichomes (branched hairs) on both leaf surfaces, especially the lower surface.

Flowers: Blooms in the spring. Flowers small and inconspicuous.

Seeds: Acorn to about 1-1/4 inch.

Habitat: Edge of washes, canyons; shady, north-facing slopes.

Elevation: About 600 to 8,500 feet.

Distribution: California to Oregon, east to Arizona, and south into Baja California.

Comments: Gets a hard, roundish growth on the twigs called "galls." These are caused by insects. A female gall midge lays eggs on or in the twig, and the young larvae produce chemicals (hormones) that cause the cancer-like growth. The larvae eat the material produced inside the gall, then develop and emerge to repeat their cycle of life.