safron's Favourites

First ever in-situ photo of this organism, and @necology and I were the second people to ever see it.

First discovered by @threepogonias in 2019.

Lycopodium clavatum × lagopus. Growing among both parents.

Granite glade.

Probable Quercus georgiana × nigra.

A few small trees along power line trail border. I think this might be the remains of a historic Q. georgiana population that has dwindled and hybridized with Q. nigra.

Unusual red oak that I suspect to be the unnamed hybrid Quercus coccinea × falcata.

This tree caught my eye because its drooping leaves were reminiscent of southern red oak, but they were not turning the characteristic chocolate brown of that species and had an irregular shape.

The upper canopy leaves, despite favoring southern red oak, especially with the deep yellow petioles, were entirely glabrous besides small tufts of hair in the vein axes. The petioles and twigs were also glabrous. Only the bud scales remain densely hairy.

The lower canopy leaves, however, look very uncharacteristic for southern red oak. They're closer to the lower canopy leaves of black oak, or perhaps enlarged versions of the lower leaves of scarlet oak. They're also hairy on the underside, with the hairs clustered in the vein axes but also sparsely distributed over the whole leaf surface. This hair distribution is very similar to that of Garland's oak, another southern red oak hybrid. The lower twigs and petioles are also pubescent.

Few acorn remains were present and only one that seemed well-developed and intact. The cup has loose scales that resemble black oak, but they're rather wide and cover most of the nut as with scarlet oak.

The only mature red oaks in the immediate vicinity were scarlet oak, but southern red oak and black oak are abundant in the general area.