Favoritos de jeffdc

Tentatively Quercus coccinea × velutina.

Based on the original description and images published by Kendell Laughlin in 1968, I suspect this tree might be a coclut oak.

Both proposed parents species are nearby.

The bark of the lower trunk resembles the dark furrows of black oak, but the bark of the upper trunk is noticeably thin and pale, merely fissured, more resembling scarlet oak.

The leaves of the upper canopy resemble scarlet oak but more reliably 7-lobed and with U-shaped rather than C-shaped sinuses. The leaves of the lower canopy more resemble black oak, though somewhat diminished in size. Laughlin specifically mentions the asymmetrical leaf bases, and that character is evident on many of the leaves.

The leaf pubescence is closer to black oak, clustered in the vein axes but also spread over the whole leaf blade. The upper canopy leaves are more sparsely hairy than the lower canopy leaves.

Buds and twigs are plausibly intermediate. Acorns appear to favor black oak, but Laughlin also mentions this possibility in his original description.

Difficult tree to judge, but it definitely struck me as odd when first looking up at the canopy and then also noticing the bark. Check out the last image for an impression of what that looked like.

Note: It appears that some online sources, including iNaturalist, have given this species the common name "Fontana's oak". This is presumably a lazy analogy to other hybrid oaks which are frequently named to honor someone. In this instance, "fontana" is simply latin for "fountain". There is no person called Fontana who this hybrid oak is named for. The original common name bestowed upon this species by its discoverers was the rather clumsy "coclut oak", derived from "COCcinea" and "veLUTina". I added that as a regional name for North America, but the default name elsewhere remains Fontana's oak.

Quercus palustris × rubra, growing with both parent species, which are common at this location.

The last three photos are of fruit from (1) Q. palustris, (2) hybrid, and (3) Q. rubra at this site.

My thanks to Albert Garofalo for showing me this woodland.

Growing underwater in the river at a depth of about a third of a meter. Location was almost the same as a sighting from the previous week
Spores: (10.2) 10.3 - 11.5 (12.1) × (6.1) 6.3 - 6.65 (6.7) µm
Q = (1.6) 1.64 - 1.8 ; N = 9
Me = 11.1 × 6.5 µm ; Qe = 1.7

11.53 6.39
10.62 6.46
11.33 6.68
11.09 6.51
10.21 6.14
10.33 6.43
11.54 6.27
10.83 6.55
12.13 6.65

Abrupt bends and exit holes in Q. bicolor twigs. Dissection revealed small rows of cells just under the bark. Good match for N. distortus?

"An enlargement on one side of the new growth causing the branch to bend sharply." (Weld 1959)

@megachile @jeffdc @calconey

On small White Pine branch. Distinctive small green thallus. Medulla fleeting KC+ purple. Polysporous asci, thousands of simple hyaline spores. Can't tell if hymenium is inspersed with oil because there were so many spores.

https://www.gallformers.org/gall/4807

Finally got a chance to revisit the site of https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143630146 and sampled another three galls. Figuring they'd all be empty already, I sectioned one in the field and lucked out on a live adult female! Large, intact specimen with tons of golden setae, beautiful. Leaning Q. macrocarpa on the host for all three, probably the original find as well.

Been digging around on Gallformers trying to find something similar and the closest I've gotten is Cynips heldae (https://www.gallformers.org/gall/1368) - but the host/range/gall location don't match. Very similar structure, though.

@adeans @calconey @jeffdc @megachile

Quercus × filialis (Q. phellos × Q. velutina).

Photos taken on a few days from October 2012 through October 2013.

A large, cultivated tree at Duke University with somewhat narrow, small acorns (around 1.5 cm long).

The second-to-last photo is a modified screenshot from Google Street View (Sep. 2014 picture) showing the tree, and I added the red arrow. The last photo is a modified screenshot (again, I added the arrows) of this tree when young and recently-planted in the early 1930s. The original and enlargeable photo can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/6900485120/in/album-72157621179687840/

Duke's historical photos can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/albums

and here: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives/history

This tree was cut down in 2020, not sure why.

Un autre boisé très étonnant ! La strate arbustive est envahie de nerpruns. Mais sinon, il y a beaucoup d’ostryers ! Et des bouleaux ! Quelques chênes, érables et amélanchiers à travers la multitude de nerpruns…

Wooo! he emerged!!!
For it being the largest mosquito species in the US, it does seem kind of small, although it's definitely very loud when it flies.
baby picture: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/128965436
Found in a root phytotelma of a Fagus grandifolia, reared indoors.

I find the spectrogram very interesting. It looks like the fundamental frequency is at about 800Hz. Crickets and most other things I've recorded have very clean songs without harmonics, so I was surprised to see the lovely harmonic series on the spectrogram. I'm also surprised by how low the fundamental frequency is, I would have thought it was much higher. Mosquitoes sound very high-pitched!

Largest mosquito larva I've ever seen. In a root phytotelma of a Fagus grandifolia
No wonder the water was conspicuously devoid of other mosquito larvae! Well, there were a couple of tiny ones, I guess too small for it to eat.

Update: emerged on 8/9/22, it's a male: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130103645

Naturally occurring hybrid of Quercus falcata and Q. nigra, which often has leaves similar in appearance to Q. georgiana but the buds and acorn cap scales are different. Both parental species are present here.

I wanted something a little special for my 500th species observation, so here is federally endangered American chaffseed, a great population found at first by Doug McGrady, then ID'd by Pam Polloni and Don Schall in 2018. This species reappeared after a 53 year absence from the bay state, and in a brand new location.

Enormous specimen for what is normally a shrubby species. About 6 meters tall, trunks around 20 cm DBH. Remnants of the sand pine scrub habitat that existed here before the cemetery was constructed. I do not know if this tree is still alive today.

Growing with Quercus geminata and a huge Q. inopina:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69387777