Gambel oak
The scrub oak of the Wasatch foothills, growing in thickets rather than as single trees.
Gambel oak is native to most of Utah's foothills and is the common scrub oak along the Wasatch foothills, on fairly dry lower mountain slopes. It is often shrubby and grows in clumps or thickets, rarely more than 15 to 20 feet tall, with a short, twisting trunk.
The leaves have seven to nine pairs of rounded lobes and turn brown in fall, sometimes orange-yellow. Small brown acorns follow inconspicuous spring flowers. It is very drought tolerant and does well in poor soil.
Seeing it
Look for clumps of small, round-lobed oaks on dry slopes just above the valleys.
More plants · Foothills and canyons
Shrubs
Big sagebrush
The gray-green shrub of Utah's open valleys and basins, and essential to sage grouse.