Quercus baronii Skan

Western China (Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hunan, Gansu, Sichuan); 900 to 2200 m; introduced in Europe in 1914 by Meyer;

6-15 m; much smaller in cultivation;

3-6 x 1-2.5 cm; persistent 1 year (in the North of its range, in colder places, leaves are sometimes deciduous in winter); leathery; ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate; apex acuminate; base rounded or weakly auricled; toothed except basally; shiny, glabrous except stellate hairs upper side; fascicled and fused-stellate pubescence below the first year, becoming glabrous except yellowish hairs along midrib; midrib slightly raised above, much more beneath; 5-7 pairs of lateral veins, straight, at an angle of 35° with midrib; petiole 3-9 mm, yellow tomentose, then glabrescent;

April; female inflorescences to 1-2 cm, bearing 1 to 3 flowers;

acorn ovoid 1.2-1.7 cm long and 0.7-1.2 cm in diameter; apex flat and silky; singly or paired, on a 1 cm long peduncle; enclosed for 1/3 of length or more in cup; cup 1.5-2 cm in diametre, 0.8-1 cm high, with greyish, reflexed scales to 3-5 mm; ripe in 2 years;

– A.Camus : tome 1, p. 426, n° 104; – Sub-genus Cerris, Section Ilex; – For Menitsky (1974), Q.pseudoserrata Liou 1936 is a synonym of Q.serrata Thunb. – Discovered by the italian missionary Giraldi, in 1895, in Shanxi;