The Cuban oak was first described by
Nuttall in 1842 as
Quercus sagraeana based on the specimen collected by
Ramón de la Sagra. Article 60.8(c) of the
International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants provides that where personal names end in -
a, the adjectival form of the specific epithet is formed by adding -
n- plus the appropriate gender ending. However according to the
International Plant Names Index "the epithet is an intentional latinization of the name Sagra (
Sagraeanus) and is not correctable." Using the same specimen, but apparently unaware of the original name,
Richard (1853) named the Cuban oak
Q. cubana.
Trelease (1924) did not view
Q. sagrana as a species in its own right but as a variety of
Q. virginiana. He proposed the name
Q. virginiana var.
sagrana.
Muller (1961) renamed it
Q. oleoides var.
sagrana, hypothesizing that the Cuban oak population was a subspecies of
Q. oleoides, originating from the
Yucatán region of
Mexico, but with introgression from
Q. geminata coming from
Florida. He considered the morphologically variable Cuban population a
hybrid swarm that had stabilized and was distinct from the other live oaks of the
Virentes. A recent study of molecular genetic variation and taxonomically informative leaf morphology shows that the Cuban oak shows little evidence of hybrid origin and is most similar to
Q. virginiana, but distinct enough to be regarded as a separate species,
Q. sagrana. It is placed in
section Virentes. ==Conservation==