Quercus gravesii Sudw.

While le Hardÿ de Beaulieu and Lamant augured a brilliant ornamental career for Chisos Oak (see Q. graciliformis), their praise for its close cousin, Chisos Red Oak, was more muted: ‘This oak, quite small but vigorous, presents a definite ornamental interest. It deserves to be better known and used.’ Nonetheless, Q. gravesii has so far progressed further in horticulture and the nursery trade than Q. graciliformis.

Quercus gravesii is found in west Texas, mostly west of the Pecos River in the high country of the mountain ranges there (Chisos, Davis, Del Norte and Glass mountains) and in the Sierra del Carmen and other areas across the border in Coahuila, Mexico. Its principal interest lies in its autumn colour. According to Benny Simpson, it is best observed in the Chisos Basin in Big Bend National Park, ‘where, in late November and December, it will spectacularly clothe the north-facing mountainsides with shades of old gold and carmine’ (Simpson 1988). Melendrez interprets its autumnal palette in terms of the species’ close kinship with Q. shumardii, which displays rich reds and purplish reds, with some leaves turning gold, and Q. buckleyi, which will show deep to bright reds or golden yellows depending on its location. Q. gravesii autumn colour combines the characteristics of both species and tends to show an affinity towards Q. buckleyi in the Chisos Mountains, but not in the Davis Mountains, where golden hues are rarer (Melendrez 2000).

Graves Oak seems to be equally at home on soils of volcanic origin as on alkaline limestone soils. In the Dallas area, it grows well on the limestone soils but does not give good colour in autumn, as the colour mechanism of the leaves does not initiate before the hard freezes hit. Trees sourced from Val Verde County (eastern limit of the range, east of the Pecos River) behave like evergreen oaks in Dallas, holding their leaves till after spring growth begins (Simpson 1988).

The species displays varied leaf shape in the wild, both due to natural variability and to seasonal weather influence. In dry years, the sinuses can be very shallow and the lobes truncated, leading to confusion with the extremely rare Q. tardifolia (Q. gravesii does not have indumentum on the leaf undersides, which distinguishes Q. tardifolia – see Chassé 2018). In wet years, the same tree will display typical Q. gravesii leaf shape. Recent research indicates that what is being referred to as Q. gravesii may include two distinct species (A. Black, pers. comm. 2024).

A population was found in Ice Canyon in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico by Michael Melendrez in 1976, but standard references have not yet included it in the distribution for the species (M. Melendrez, pers. comm. 2024). These trees are found at significantly higher elevation (2380–2530 m) than in Texas (c. 1280 m in the Glass Mountains, 1520–2130 m in the Davis Mountains, 1370–2300 m in the Chisos Mountains) (le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2010; Russell 2017). A tree sourced from this population has survived at Denver Botanic Gardens (Zone 5), where it has reached c. 6 m in 2024, admittedly planted in a very warm location along the conservatory (P. Douglas, pers. comm. 2024). This unusual hardiness may be due to the higher elevation origin, but it also fulfils Guy Sternberg’s 2004 assessment, in which he said the species had reliable hardiness in Zone 7 and might be recommended for one of even two zones further north in areas with dry heat and alkaline soils. Another tree from the New Mexico source has grown well at Eike Jablonski’s arboretum in Kruchten, western Germany. Q. gravesii, along with Q. shumardii and Q. buckleyi, is one of which Jablonski is an ‘absolute fanatic,’ displaying excellent autumn colour and surviving a long drought in 2023, with no rain from March through the end of August and temperatures up to 40°C; it was c. 6 m tall in 2024 (E. Jablonski, pers. comm.). Thierry Lamant planted a Q. gravesii at his home near Orleáns, France, from seed collected in the Chisos Mountains by Michael Melendrez in 1996. In 2004, it had grown 5 m in as many years, and it surpassed 15 m in height in 2021, possibly the champion tree in cultivation (Lamant 2004; pers. comm. 2024). In France, at Arboretum de la Bergerette, Shaun Haddock admires its lively texture thanks to the smaller leaves, on a par with Q. buckleyi. Planted in 1997, from seed collected by Guy Sternberg in Texas in 1996, the larger of two trees reached 8 m in 2016 (Haddock 2012).

Quercus gravesii is cultivated in several collections in the UK. The UK champion is at Kew, accessioned in 1972 and reaching 13 m × 35 cm in 2022 (The Tree Register 2025). In 2009 it had reached c. 10 m and, according to Grimshaw and Bayton (2009), had ‘heavy spreading branches that form a rounded, though sparse, crown.’ The description still held true in 2023 (pers. obs. RC). A tree planted in 2004 had reached 9 m × 20 cm at Buckingham Palace (The Tree Register 2024), while at Thenford House, trees from the same origin as those at Arboretum de la Bergerette, had reached 6 m in 2009 (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009).

In California, Dave Muffly champions it as ‘a first choice for use as a climate change biodiversity migration species’, as its native habitat is within the range for future climate projections for that state. He praises its urban-friendly upright growth habit, excellent mid-winter foliage, and good adaptation to drought. In cultivation in California, the species is late-deciduous to semi-evergreen, and trees hold green leaves through the year-end holiday season (Muffly 2024). It has performed well in the oak-focused arboretum on the Apple Campus in Cupertino, California (pers. obs. RC 2018). At UC Berkeley Botanic Garden in Oakland, there is a specimen accessioned in 1990, grown from seed collected by John Fairey in Coahuila, Mexico (Cameron 2018; University of California Botanical Gardens at Berkeley 2025).

The species was first collected during the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855). This survey aimed to determine the border between the United States and Mexico as defined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had ended the Mexican–American War and in which Mexico had ceded 55% of its territory to the United States (a not insignificant number of oak species would not have been US natives were it not for this treaty!) A specimen collected by Christopher Parry, John Bigelow, Charles Wright, and Arthur Schott, botanists on the expedition, bears a label signed by Bigelow suggesting that he thought it might be a form of Q. kelloggii with very small acorns. However, Torrey, who described the species in Volume 2 of the Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1859), authored by W.H. Emory, classified it as possibly a variety of Q. coccinea, which he called var. microcarpa (Torrey 1859). Strangely, this population has never been found again: the location is indicated in the report as ‘Rocky ravines near the mouth of the Pecos, and on the Limpio.’ According to Simpson (1988), the meaning of ‘Limpio’ is uncertain, and no one has been able to relocate the trees; they have become known as the Lost Oaks of the Pecos.

In 1913, G.B. Sudworth collected a specimen of this oak and sent it to Sargent, who determined it was a variety of Q. texana Buckley (what is now known as Q. buckleyi), which he called Q. texana var. chesosensis (Sargent referred to the Chisos Mountains, where the oak was found, as ‘Chesos Mountains’). The variety, according to Sargent, differed from the type in the acuminate (i.e. tapering to a point) leaf lobes and the smaller cups. He also suggested that this might be the same oak that Torrey described as Q. coccinea var. microcarpa (Sargent 1918). However, Sudworth was not convinced and in 1927 took a stand and included the taxon in his Checklist of the Forest Trees of the United States as Q. gravesii, which he described in a footnote. He mentioned that, subsequent to discovering this oak in the Chisos Mountains in 1913 and sending the specimen to Sargent, he found it growing abundantly in the Davis Mountains in 1921. He differed with Sargent and stated that a careful study in the field convinced him that the species was distinct from Q. texana Buckley, and he proposed the new name, Q. gravesii. The epithet he chose honours Henry S. Graves, former Director of the United States Forest Service, who Sudworth describes as ‘a staunch friend and supporter of dendrological investigations’ (Sudworth 1927). Sudworth died on May 10, 1927, at the age of 62, two months after the publication of the revised edition of the Check List, his crowning work, the first edition of which was published in 1898 (Alumni Association of the University of Michigan 1927; Ellenwood 2019).