Quercus benthamii A.DC

Costa-Rica (2400 m), El Salvador (2500 m), Guatemala (2100 m), Honduras (1800-2800 m), Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, 1500-3000 m), Nicaragua (450-1700 m), Panama (2100 m);

15-35 m tall;

5-13 x 2-4 cm; deciduous; leathery; mostly oboval or elliptic; apex acute to acuminate or attenuate, seldom aristate; base remotely cuneate or narrowly acute, sometimes obtuse; margin entire, flat or weakly revolute, often wavy, seldom with few bristle-tips; dark green, glabrous or glabrescent above, with trichomes on the midrib; stellate hairs at axils and along midrib beneath, without glandular hairs; 10-14 pairs of lateral veins, straight or nearly so, strongly prominent below; epidermis smooth or slightly bulled; hairy petiole 6-20 mm long;

male inflorescences 5-15 cm, with numerous flowers; female very short, bearing 1-4 pubescent flowers;

acorn 1.5-2 cm x 1.6-2; singly or paired; subglobose, apically rounded, mucronate, on a 3-6 mm long stalk; nut enclosed 1/3 in cup; inner surface of shell pubescent; cupule hemispheric or turbinate, not rolled at margin, 2-3 cm in diameter, with broadly triangular, pointed, appressed, yellowish coffee-coloured, pubescent scales; ripen the first year;

– A. Camus : n° 322; – Sub-genus Quercus, Section Lobatae; Series Erythromexicanae, Group Benthamiae; – For many Authors, Q. rapurahuensis is a true species, having more secondary vein pairs (more than 20, though in the original description of Pittier there are nearly 10 pairs…see here ); – The term “undulata” inspired numerous Authors ! One can list the following : Q.undulata Engelm 1878 (= Q.sinuata Walt.), Q.undulata Kit.1863 (= Q.pubescens Willd.), Q.undulata Benth. 1841 (= Q.benthamii A.DC), Q.undulata K.Koch 1847 (= Q.lusitanica Lam.), Q.undulata Torr 1827 (= Q.x undulata complex Little 1979), Q.undulata Sarg., and A.DC ( describing more or less Q.x pauciloba …), Q.undulata S. Wats. (= Q.gambelii Nutt.) ; – The plants from Nicaragua have generally toothed leaves (but they may have been misidentified); – Close to Q.humboldtii Bonpl. – Hybridizes with Q.salicifolia ; – See HERE to compare with some other whole-leaved oaks.