Quercus dumosa

What to Eat

Edible parts: Acorns, Nuts

The acorns are ground into a fine powder and used to make bread, sometimes after leaching to remove tannins, and can be stored for later use.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. .

North America, USA,

How to Identify

A small temperate tree in the Fagaceae (oak) family producing acorns that are a traditional food source.

Quercus dumosa, commonly known as Nuttall's scrub oak or coastal sage scrub oak, is a species of scrub oak belonging to the white oak group (subgenus Quercus, section Quercus). It is a shrub typically reaching heights of 1–3 m (3.3–9.8 ft), characterized by a scraggly and rounded appearance, with dense tangled reddish branches, small dark green leaves with distinct teeth, curly trichomes on the lower leaf surfaces, and narrow acute acorns. Native to the United States and Mexico, it is a rare species found in chaparral and coastal sage scrub on sandy soils often within sight of the ocean, and is found in disjunct populations ranging from Santa Barbara County, California south to the vicinity of Punta Colonet, Baja California. It is perhaps one of the rarest and most threatened species of oak in California, as the human development of coastal southern California has left very little habitat intact.

Notes

There are about 600 Quercus species.

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