April is here and still have some leaves with new buds swelling on New Mexican TXLO. QMLO buds about to break.

Mike my QMLOaks pretty much kept all their leaves this year. Nice on your trees

Here is mine

Nice Brian, my outside planted LO hasn't begun to wake up yet.

Thank you Poaky! It’s bout time to wake up! ;)

Yeah, likely in the middle of May it will :)

Please send us a pic in the middle of May!

I will try to. I might have to ask Mike Hisey here to post it for me. I'm really dumb at all that stuff. If he can do it ( I haven't asked him yet) then I'll be able to post 1 here.

Hi all, my Quartz Mtn live oaks did great. only 5% leaf loss this year However i did have loss from a massive baseball sized hail storm. These oaks are super strong - no broken branches, but did get some bark tear on branches and leaf loss. Seems to be rebudding.

Yeah, that's tough Joe, I heard about that hail in the Springfield area. We had 5 Tornado wwarnings In about a week and a half. They kept coming straight at us from Ottawa Kansas then luckily fell apart after crossing the state line. No hail or wind to speak about.

Live oak mostly leafed out now and even still have many of last year s leaves.

My biggest LO will have to be cut down though, it has struggled since the 2021 freeze and just not recovering well. Seems to be declining every year and don't think I can bring it back to an attractive tree.

Thats not good Mike, is the big live oak quercus fusiformis or its quartz mtn t

My understanding that quartz mountain live oaks are quercus fusiformis.

Brian, they are.

Joe, this is the NM tree. The other 4 are fine in fact all 5 Cass county trees kept many leaves into spring with a couple still holding a few of them. ST Clair County tree completely fine as well as Quartz mountain trees here and there.

I have 2 QMLO here and about a half dozen or so in St Clair.

The big one, I cut back to a 5' stump knowing that's not proper. I'm hoping for a bush on top of a stump just to get a couple more years out of it. Eventually I'll replace it with one of the QMLO seedlings I have.

All other southwestern oak are doing great with no problems other than the upcoming Japanese beetle invasion.

Hey guys, I was going to have Mike Hisey post a pic of my TXLO from "Oaks of the wild west" nurery in Arizona. Well, I waited past mid May to now, and it never put on any new leaves, so it's dead. I still have my potted QMLO's though. I'll plant 1 outside next spring.

While Quartz Mountain live oaks are a disjunct population of quercus fusiformis - they are different than Texas Quercus Fusiformis. Growth is much thicker and hardens off quicker, the leaves are much thicker, spikey and obviously much more cold tolerent. They have evolved different traits. So when i ask quercus fusiformis or Quartz Mtn thats what i mean

A friend of mine that has 11 year old quartz mountain live oak. its growing much faster than my older trees. this tree is south side of Springfield, MO

It's interesting. Springfield, Missouri, is only 6 and a half hours away from the Quartz Mountains, but has a significantly different climate. Springfield is more humid, gets more summer rainfall, has winters that are about 5 to 10 degrees F colder, and gets much more snow than the Quartz Mountains. Between the 98th and 100th meridian (longitude) the humid East rapidly transitions into the arid West. The Quartz Mountains are near the "99th meridian", right before things get very dry (the "Empty Middle" corridor belt).

I have no doubt a Quartz Mountain oak would be able to grow faster than the native oaks in Missouri, but the native oaks of Missouri (such as Q. alba and Q. macrocarpa) could outcompete the Quartz Mountain oak when it comes to shading, in areas that are less open and have more tree cover. I also suspect the Quartz Mountain oak is not as adapted to dealing with high snowfall or the diseases humidity can bring, nor is it adapted to handle rare extreme cold events. (The lowest recorded temperature ever in Springfield, Missouri, was -29°F, which would kill Quartz Mountain oak, but it hasn't gotten anywhere near that cold in a long time. In 1999 it got down to -21°F which might kill or severely damage Quartz Mountain oak)

Socal, the humidty doesn't bother the Quartz Mountain Live Oaks at all. In general Quercus Fusiformis grow down in super humid central to southern arkansas with no problems. These are tough trees. Saying that, the Quartz Mountain Live Oaks are in a much drier region and grow slower due to the lack of rain. These same trees grow like weeds when you put them in a raining climate. Also Springfield and south in Missouri does not get alot of heavy snow, but there area does get alot of sun - about the same as Northeastern Texas and Central to Eastern Oklahoma on that scale. Live Oaks love heat and sun. As for low temperatures, if you travel around Oklahoma you will see these Quartz Mountain Oaks everywhere, not just the Quartz Mountain State Park area. Enid, Oklahoma for example has plenty of them and old ones to boot. Enid Oklahoma record low is -31 degrees below zero, colder than Springfield, MO. Its not the actual low temperature that kills live oaks. While Enid might be below -31 for a couple hours, Indianapolis (zone 6b) can be below -10 for a couple days for more than 24 hours ea day. Thats what kills live oaks. Springfield really doesn't get below zero for more than 3-5 hours.

Quartz Mountain Live Oak is more vulnerable to fungal disease than Quercus alba.

The chance of contracting disease does have a connection to humidity.

My QMLO doesn't seem to have fungal problems here in somewhat drier west central Missouri and even the New Mexico trees that I have show little fungal problems. Occasionally some on trees that have been winter ddamaged And put out an abundance of foliage that holds humidity close. Systemic fungicide sprayed a couple of times a year stops this for me.

Winter damage has so far been only on the NM trees from disjunct population in se NM.

Oh, and obviously they could never compete with our native oak with one possible exception . Our desert like glades. I am currently experimenting with trees on both sandstone and dolomite glades in Missouri. I'll keep you posted but so far it looks very promising!

Hmmm, maybe fungal disease from humidity is what killed my QMLO from Joe in Mo, I think I named the right person.

To anyone new here, it was a 4-5 foot (when planted) QMLO that had done great for at least 4-5 winters. It was about 7-8 feet, and was starting to cast shade for my dogs. Then, it died. No harsh winter.

It had gotten a trunk of about 3-3 1/2 inch caliper.

Maybe my male dog peed on it and did it in. But, the humidity could've done it (?)

There is a difference in seeds i received from Joe and what I received from Mike. Joes trees grow very slow meanwhile mikes grow very fast. Do you know the difference from those trees?

I have no idea, if you were asking me.

Sudden death of Quartz Mountain Live Oak, in Missouri, would be more likely to be caused by temperature fluctuations, a prolonged warm spell in early spring followed by freezing temperatures, killing off all the tip growth that has begun to bud out. In many cases the trees may be unable to recover from this. The Midwest is known to have temperature fluctuations, and while the Quartz Mountain area certainly has temperature fluctuations too, they are more mild.

Poaky is in sw Pennsylvania. None of my trees have died after 5 straight rough winters and after finally a relatively mild one, no new damage. My largest just hasn't recovered from the 2021 arctic blast that shot all the way through Texas down into Mexico so I cut it back severely.

Understand this about sw Oklahoma, temperature swings can be even more extreme than here. I've seen it be nearly 90  there in February only to turn around and get down to 10 or lower the next day. QMLO are quite capable of handling that

Just so happens, we had a similar temperature swing in March this year. 90 one day 11 the next day or two. No damage to QMLO or any of the others. QMLO do not break bud until early April no matter how warm March is. My New Mexican LO won't break bud till mid April.

Also my other more western oak trees have never been winter damaged and with the exception of Quercus 'Undulata ' never have fungal issues. Undulata will get apple or rose rust (whatever it's called) I treat with a systemic fungicide twice a year. Occasionally I'll get powdery mildew and treat the same way.

Brian, I collected seed from trees on the dry mountain side that grow slowly and from the trees growing down in the park on thicker sandy soil. The park trees are more robust and grow quicker, thats what I gave you.

Thanks for adding my zone and state info here Mike, I left that out.

Thank you Mike

Brian i gave you quartz mountain acorns off my 15 year old trees growing south of springfield mo. I have one older tree than that, but none of the ones i gave to you were from that one.

Poaky, my guess is your larger QMLO died from Sudden Oak Death. Which is a fungus thst happens during cool wet periods (not hot humid) SW Missouri USDA Zones 6b-7a have alot of sunny days about the same as eastern Oklahoma and NE Texas. We also experience very hot humid summers, much hotter than PA. QMLO’s love the heat. This kinda helps prevent that type of cool wet climate. we are a little susceptible to that environment in late April when leaf out could occur. This year with a Super El Nino occuring we are having rain every couple days and cooler weather than normal. So this is a good test year to see how these Quercus fusifomis Quartz Mtn perform. Also if you trim a live oak any time other than January, febuary you could invite oak wilt via beetles into its vascular system. This will kill it too.

Socal, Here in SW Missouri these Quartz Mtn live oaks won’t break leaf bud after mid April after the catkins and last frost. These trees are so resilient that if you did have leaf out frost - they would just grow more leaves a few weeks later. In addition, if the tree is mature, the leaves from the prior year will still be on the tree until the new leaves push them out.

Mike, Im growing a quartz mountain live oak on a glade @ my stone county lake property. im revitalizing the glade removed eastern red cedar trees and planted some glade wild flora. Obvioulsy QMLO doesn’t belong but I think it will be a plus overall. Im also actively repopulating this property with the rare (almost extinct) Ozark Chinquapin Chestnut tree (castanea ozarkensis) The property is unique it has lots of 100 ft Short leaf pine, the usual hickory/ oak, red bud, dogwood, some magnolia acuminata, Ozark Witch Hazel (hamamelis vernalis) and even some rare Ashe Juniper on the glade side of the property coming from a disjunct population growing a mile away. Link: Missouri Ashe Juniper Natural area

I have planted the chinquapin as well few years ago. Have not flourished the best. There is a difference between yours and mikes trees. I will keep you updated.

Joeinmo, I can't recall if we had been havibng cold wet weather when my bigger QMLO died. My posts would be somewhere on this thread. But waaaayyyy back before who knows how many new pages had been made.

As for my current potted QMLO baby, I will try to plant it next spring, before it really gets a chance to break dormancy. That will be tricky with it overwintering in my greenhouse.

If it dies, I do have 1 more QMLO baby. It's just smaller.

If that one goes, I'll be giving up trying the QMLO. I do have many trees already. Mostly oaks, hardy oaks. But, I do hope I can keep a QMLO alive and thriving. Family here are not so happy about all the trees I do have here. I can't understand that way of thinking at all. But, we all have to get along ya know?

Brian, where did you get your Ozark Chinquapin Chestnut tree (castanea ozarkensis)? super hard to find

Hey Joe I got them here:

https://www.willisorchards.com/category/chinquapin-trees

Now they look to be from the allegany mountains though. Similar but could be different? 🤷‍♂️

Ahh ok, these are different. These are huge trees when they mature 60-100 years from now. If you donate to the foundation, they will send you about 5-6 acorns. Mine are about 5-7 years old now.

check out the website. These are Ozark Natives

https://ozarkchinquapinmembership.org

I will check these out! Thank you very much Joe!

Joe, I think it's awesome you're restoring the glade, dolomite I assume. I'm also restoring my glade, channel sands, in south St Clair County. I've removed most cedars but accidentally cut down a very nice service berry tree thinking it was a young hickory (it was winter, no leaves). I've scattered Echinocereus reichenbachii baileyi seed and planted wavy leaf oak and QMLO. So far everything is going great but still looking for baileyi seedlings. They self seed in my cactus garden here.

If you ever float the White river below Table Rock dam you will see many white cedar on the south facing bluffs all the way down to Branson. Send pics of yours sometime.

Mike, that is great on the glade restoration. Those white cedar are interesting, I dont have any of those on my property. I do have the ashe juniper. those cactus are incredible!

White cedar is Ashes juniper

Pic is variety perbellus

I should mention, white cedar is also a common name for a tree growing much further north, Great lakes, but I think it's an arborvitae. Ozark white cedar is a juniper.

Mike, yes also known as Ozark white cedar ..and I was thinking northern eastern white cedar which look totally different

My Havard oak acorns should ripen in a week or two.

This "tree " is about 24" tall, or short!

Wavy leaf oak are ripening now.