Flowering Trees & Shrubs Codexery

Quercus acutissima

Asian oak species naturalized in North America, often invasive.

Last updated

The fruit is an acorn 2–3 cm long with a cap densely covered in soft 4–8 mm bristles.[1] A mature sawtooth oak can reach heights of 25 to 30 meters, with its trunk diameter potentially measuring up to 1.5 meters.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeTracheophytes
  2. CladeAngiosperms
  3. CladeEudicots
  4. CladeRosids
  5. OrderFagales
  6. FamilyFagaceae
  7. GenusQuercus
  8. GenusQuercus
  9. SpeciesQuercus acutissima

Named by Carruth.

Close relatives

Other species of Quercus with a Codexery entry.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Quercus acutissima (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

  1. LC▲ this species
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX
Population trend
Not held in our sources — see the assessment
Assessment published
2019

Source: IUCN Red List assessment · GBIF copy of the Red List category

Where the quercus acutissima has been recorded

Where the quercus acutissima has been recorded23 mapped locations from 8,484 GBIF occurrence records; marked places: HimalayasHimalayas

Each dot is a place where the species has been observed and reported (8,484 records, half-degree grid) — not a modelled range. 441 inland records left out (institution coordinates). 1 isolated far-off record not drawn.

Map: drawn by Codexery. Data: GBIF occurrence search (records CC0 / CC BY) · Natural Earth basemap (public domain) · place coordinates: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Species
acutissima

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

The species is native to China, Korea, Japan, Indochina, the Himalayas, and southeastern Tibet.[2] Two subspecies are accepted: subsp. acutissima and subsp. kingii.[3] Acorns mature about 18 months after pollination.[1] Each leaf, which ranges from 8 to 20 cm in length, features between 14 and 20 small, triangular, saw-tooth-like lobes along its sides.[1]

Catkins, which are wind-pollinated, serve as the tree's flowers.[1] Members of this section are distinguished by having soft bristles around their shoot buds and bristle tips on their leaf lobes.[1] This oak species shows a preference for acidic soils that drain well, enabling it to survive in many challenging environments.[4] Around the 1920s, the species was brought to the United States, and it has since established itself in the wild across various parts of North America.[2][5]

What the specialist sources record

The Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management describes the sawtooth oak as growing to 70 feet when mature.[6] Its acorns are enclosed within a cup covered in long, spreading recurved scales, somewhat similar to Bur oak.[6] GBIF records 10,770 occurrence records for this taxon as of 19 October 2026.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Quercus acutissima" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Quercus acutissima" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Quercus acutissima Carruth.", Plants of the World Online; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Quercus acutissima" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Quercus acutissima Carruth.", Plants of the World Online (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Quercus acutissima" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lemke, "Geospatial assessment of invasive plants on reclaimed mines in Alabama", Invasive Plant Science and Management, 2013, p. 401–410; "Quercus acutissima Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management.", www.lhprism.org; Goelz, "Growth and Seed Production of Sawtooth Oak (Quercus acutissima) 22Years After Direct Seeding", United States Department of Agriculture, August 1997 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Quercus acutissima" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "INVASIVE PLANTS AND THE NURSERY INDUSTRY", AmeriNursery.com, 2011-09-01 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "Quercus acutissima Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management.", www.lhprism.org. facts only, no text reused. lhprism.org
  7. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Quercus acutissima (taxon key 2877959). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Quercus acutissima (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Oak

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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