Identification and Mapping of Priority Threatened, Native California Oaks

Hosted by California Native Plant Society, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak (GCCO), the California OakWatch Project on iNaturalist focuses on obtaining more occurrence information for the priority, threatened oaks in California. In many areas, oaks struggle to reproduce, and knowing where seedlings and saplings are is crucial information. This project collects data on oaks native to the California Floristic Province, with a particular focus on young plants. Check out the iNaturalist project page to learn more about new occurrence information being gathered and challenges/opportunities you can participate in, prizes included!

To support this project, a webinar that took place in October, 2022, featured presentations from several expert botanists, detailing how to best identify priority, threatened oaks, native to California. This webinar was meant to serve as an educational resource and to encourage more people to contribute occurrence information to the iNaturalist California OakWatch Project. You can view the webinar recording here; the presentations featured Quercus cedrosensis, Quercus dumosa, Quercus engelmannii, Quercus tomentella, Quercus pacifica and Quercus parvula, and other oak species. 

Aligning with the information shared in the presentations, we put together an identification guide for the above species and other closely related species/hybrids in the region. It is a working document, so if you have any feedback, please email GCCO Coordinator, Amy Byrne, abyrne@mortonarb.org