Quercus aquifolioides Rehd. & Wils.

China (Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang), 2000-4500 m; Bhutan, Myanmar; introduced in Great-Britain in 1908 by Ernest Wilson;

often shrubby (1-4 m); sometimes can reach 10 m and more;

3-7 cm long, 2.5-5.5 cm wide; persisting 2 years; subelliptic, oboval or oval, sometimes obovale-elliptic; base subcordate or auricled; apex blunt; margin sinuate and revolute, with strong and sharp teeth, or sometimes entire, or dentate at base and entire at apex; glabrous above; rusty glandular hairs below, and various non glandular trichomes, becoming glabrescent; midrib sinuate near apex; 6-8 pairs of lateral veins always glabrous, raised underneath, at an angle of 60° with midrib; petiole 2-5 mm long, sometimes absent;

in May-June; pistillate inflorescences 1-4 (-5)cm long, bearing 1 to 4 fruits; male catkin 1-3 cm long, hairy, golden;

acorn ovoid pointed, 1.5 cm long, 1 cm in diameter; 1 to 4 together on a 2-4 cm long peduncle; enclosed for 1/3 or 1/4 of length in bell-shaped, scaly, tomentose cup with apicaly rounded and free scales; maturing in 2 years;

hardy zone 6; all types of soils;

– A. Camus : tome 1, p. 396, n° 93 – Sub-genus Cerris, Section Ilex; – Very close to Q.semecarpifolia ; – For Menitsky (1974) it is a synonym of Q.rehderiana (though the latter has glabrous leave underneath…) – See the Key for similar Asian Quercus