Return to Native Trees of the Southern Rocky Mountains

This shrubby oak with the deep-lobed leaves is the common oak of the southern Rockies, and is found throughout western and southern Colorado, and in adjacent areas of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, covering nearly 10 million acres all told, among the lower mountains, hillsides, and canyons. It just reaches the southern edge of Wyoming in the Medicine Bow mountains.

Gambel oak is found in dry locations from 4000 to 8500 or even 10500 feet elevation. Dense thickets of Gambel oak shrubs cover many miles of western hills and riverbanks. Commonly known as Scrub oak, it grows as shrubs as low as 4 to 6 feet high, or as trees to 20 feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 6 to 8 inches; rarely it may reach 50 feet high and a diameter of 2 feet. The large tree form is more common in the southern parts of its range. Typical maximum age is only 80 years though a few trees reach 200 years.

Gambel oak and other southwestern oaks form an extensive group of hybrids called the Wavyleaf oaks. The leafs are typically 1 to 3 inches long and vary greatly in shape and variety of lobe pattern, some having little or no teeth or lobes. All these oaks interbreed and have been the cause for an enduring discussion among botanists about how to classify, relate, and name them. Other than Gambel oak, all oak species of this area are shrubs less than 10 feet high.

Gamble oak provides important browse for mule deer, and for elk and bighorn sheep in summer. Porcupine and rabbits eat both foliage and the inner bark. Deer and numerous birds and small mammals including the wild turkey and Abert's squirrel eat the acorns. The wood is strong but tends to check so only a small amount is cut commercially, for firewood, near Salt Lake City.

The scientific name is Quercus gambelii , Gambel's oak. William Gambel was a young naturalist who collected plants here in 1844, about the time beaver pelts ceased to be the big business in the Rockies, and fifteen years before the Pike's Peak gold rush. Thomas Nutall first described the tree in 1848, and named the tree for Gambel.

Leaves have variable shape, and are often deeply lobed, with lobes rounded not pointed. The lobes are usually indented more than halfway to the center. The middle lobes are often the largest. The leaf length is 2 to 6 inches long, and 2 to 3 inches wide. Leaves are leathery in texture, and bright or dark green on the top surface.

Acorns are 1/2 to 1 inch long. The acorn cup is 2/5 to 3/5 inch wide, covering 1/3 to 1/2 of the acorn.

The bark is light gray, thick, ridged or deeply fissured, or in irregular plates or scales.