Quercus × ganderi C.B. Wolf

Tree to 23 m tall, trunk to 1 m diameter. Bark resembling that of Q. kelloggii, smooth and grey to brown, developing shallow vertical ridges with age, young shoots densely hairy, becoming nearly glabrous the second year. Leaves late-deciduous, turning yellow before the young leaves emerge; blade generally elliptic to somewhat obovate in outline, to 14 × 10 cm and edged with 3–4 lobes on each side, the lobes variable in size and ending in 1–4 bristle-tipped teeth. They are leathery and slightly convex, glossy dark green above and thinly stellate-hairy, grey-green and densely stellate-hairy beneath when young, becoming nearly glabrous to glabrous with tufts of hairs in the vein axils. Petiole to 2.5 cm. Fruits borne singly or in clusters of up to 3, cupules to 18 × 25 mm, acorns said to be similar to those of Q. kelloggii, ripening the first year in the original tree of Q. × ganderi, but the second year in Q. × chasei. (Wolf 1944; Giseburt 2021).

Distribution  United States California

USDA Hardiness Zone 6

RHS Hardiness Rating H6

Taxonomic note The Gander Oak was described as the hybrid between Q. agrifolia var. oxyadenia and Q. kelloggii. The Chase Oak, Q. × chasei, represents the hybrid between Q. agrifolia var. agrifolia and Q. kelloggii, but as there are a lot of intermediates between the varieties of Q. agrifolia it is not usually recognised as distinct from Q. × ganderi. This oak came to notice when Harold S. Chase wrote a letter to California botanist Howard McMinn in 1947, in which he mentioned a large oak tree growing near Gilroy, California (McMinn, Babcock & Righter 1949). This had been identified as the Oracle Oak (Q. × morehus) but was too large to be that hybrid. It was said to differ from Q. × ganderi in having the leaves glabrous beneath except for axillary tufts of hairs. It also differed in its larger size, larger leaves, and the acorns that mature in the second year. According to Wolf (1944), this was the identity of a specimen collected in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Monterey County in 1941. Hauser et al. (2017) distinguish between the two hybrids based on acorn maturation (1 year for Q. × ganderi vs. 2 years for Q. × chasei), but this may not be a reliable diagnostic feature: the original tree of Q. × ganderi was observed to have acorns on what appeared to be current-year and past-year growth (pers. obs. RC 2024).