scrub oak

Any of several oaks that form shrubby thickets, especially Quercus ilicifolia of eastern North America or Q. dumosa of western North America.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

scrub oak - any of various chiefly American small shrubby oaks often a dominant form on thin dry soils sometimes forming dense thickets

oak tree, oak - a deciduous tree of the genus Quercus; has acorns and lobed leaves; "great oaks grow from little acorns"

bear oak, Quercus ilicifolia - shrubby oak of southeastern United States usually forming dense thickets

blackjack, blackjack oak, jack oak, Quercus marilandica - a common scrubby deciduous tree of central and southeastern United States having dark bark and broad three-lobed (club-shaped) leaves; tends to form dense thickets

myrtle oak, Quercus myrtifolia, seaside scrub oak - small evergreen shrub or tree of southeastern United States; often forms almost impenetrable thickets in sandy coastal areas

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Both road and stream wound up through a valley dense with scrub oak and fir.

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Well into the night a full moon edges over a distant line of cedars, huge and melon golden, and it gives me confidence and we plunge ahead through the tangled scrub oak and boot-sucking sand, my compound bow with nocked arrow in one hand and a borrowed 10mm automatic pistol in the other, bent on making this boar pay for my suffering.

Runnin' Russians

The buck disappeared for several minutes into scrub oak trees and brush, but I could occasionally catch glimpses of its antlers as it made its way toward a small clearing.

THOUSAND ISLAND WHITETAILS

When the buck cleared the scrub oak 20 yards to my right, stopped and turned to look behind him, drew, settled my sight pin low and behind his front shoulder, then released.

MAKING OF A LADY HUNTER

It also has a big feel, with a lot of mesquite flats, some classic Hill Country ridges and a lot of scrub oak.

Deer Camp Cartridges

I saw the scrub oak moving as the bull maneuvered his way through the tangle.

The curse of the wapiti: every Bowhunter knows, or should, that failure is never a good reason to quit trying

Where there was a trail, scrub oak, dense brush, and blowdown slowed our progress so it was midafternoon by the time we found an opening in the timber wide enough to glass from.

An elk in sheep's country

There are actually a wide variety of scrub oak species, yet the animals seem to favor all their acorns.

Windfall in the oak scrub: seemingly desolate scrub habitats become game magnets in the fall

The sign improved with each of our careful steps, but then it came to an abrupt end between a saw palmetto head and a tangle of vines and scrub oak. Puzzled, we crouched on the trail and closely examined every leaf and twig for even the tiniest clue.

The pirate: a family celebration of wild places & wild things

Here is a scene: "For more than an hour, the three of us climbed the steep, trail-less canyon wall, pushing through scratchy thickets of scrub oak and across exposed sandstone slabs.

A crush course on old ways

Some 20,000 acres of scrub oak and brush ravaged by the fire over a five-hour period on Saturday night represented "unprecedented growth in that short amount of time," he added.