Quercus laurina Bonpl.

Mexico in the Sierra Madre del Sur and in the Transmexican Volcanic Belt (Aguascalientes, Colima, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Veracruz, Michoacan, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Tlaxcala, Jalisco, Hidalgo) ; Guatemala ; 1600 - 3600 m ;

10-30 m; trunk 15-100 cm wide;

4-12 x 1.5-5 cm; lanceolate or elliptic-oblanceolate; thick, coriaceous, stiff; apex acute or acuminate, usually bristle-tipped; base varying : usually rounded, more or less attenuate, sometimes cordate or truncate; margin thick, not revolute, most often entire, sometimes weakly toothed in apical 1/3 (1-4 pairs of aristate teeth); dull dark green above, glabrous or with some stellate trichomes near base; lustrous yellow green beneath with some amber glandular and fasciculate stipitate trichomes at vein axils; 6-12 vein pairs, raised adaxially, raised abaxially, slightly curved; epidermis papillose ; petiole 0.5-2 cm, yellow tomentose then glabrescent;

March-April; staminate catkins hairy, 4 cm long, with more than 10 flowers; pubescent pistillate inflorescences in April, with 1 to 3 flowers;

acorn 1.5-2 cm ; singly or to 3; peduncle 3-12 mm; cup half-round, not rolled at rim, with thin pubescent scales, enclosing 1/3 of the nut; maturing in 1 or 2 years from September to November;

hardy ; prefers deep soils;

– A. Camus : n° 358; – Sub-genus Quercus, section Lobatae, Series Erythromexicanae, Group Lanceolatae; - - Q. laurina shows a high morphological variation, but is constant in its amber glandular trichomes on the abaxial surface, its axil tufts of fascicular stipitate trichomes, its dull and dark green leaves with aristate teeth toward the apex of the blade. It can be confused with Q. affinis which has not glandular trichomes on the lower face of the leaves, the 2 faces being nearly concolor and the lateral veins flat adaxially.