Quercus melissae Nixon & Barrie

Mexico (Chiapas); Guatemala; 700-2300 m;

reaches 20 m;

6-17 cm x 4-9, ca. 2 times as long as wide; oboval to broadly elliptic; apex broadly acute or obtuse to rounded; base rounded or subcordate; margin entire to crenate or irregularly dentate; adaxially dull grey-green, glabrous; abaxially with scattered, tangled, multiradiate hairs, with or without some glandular trichomes along veins; 10-15 pairs of secondary veins, ascending, straight, reaching the margin; petiole 4-9 mm, glabrous or nearly so with a scurfy pubescence;

acorn 1.8-2.1 cm long, 1.2-1.6 cm wide, ovoid, light to dark brown, puberulent at apex, single or paired, subsessile or on a 0.2-1.3 cm long peduncle; cup halfround or slightly flattened, with greyish pubescent scales, tuberculate near base; annual; cotyledons most often fused;

– Sub-genus Quercus, Section Quercus; Series Leucomexicanae; – Differs from Q. segoviensis Liebm. which has shorter petioles (2-4 mm), longer peduncles (1-6 cm) and free cotyledons; – Related to Q. glaucoides Mart. & Gal. – Resembles Q. tuberculata Liebm. from the Northern and Western Mexico; may be confused as well with Q. liebmannii, but the latter has free cotyledons and the lower side of the leaves is densely tomentose.