Quercus meavei Valencia, Sabás & Soto

Mexico, in the Sierra Madre Oriental (Hidalgo, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz); 1600-2200;

20-30 m

13-18 x 4-7 cm; coriaceous; lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or oblanceolae, seldom elliptic; apex acute aristate; base obtuse or cuneate; margin slightly thickenned, not revolute, crispate, with 11-16 pairs of longly aristate teeth (teeth 2-8 mm long); adaxially dull green, glabrous or with some stellate hairs near base; abaxially glabrous except stipitate fascicled hairs in axils tufts; 14-18 secondary vein pairs, ascendent, nearly straight, impressed above, prominent beneath; epidermis slightly papillose; petiole 1.5-4.5 cm, brown, glabrescent except at the tomentose base;

in March; male catkins slightly pilose, 7 cm long; male flowers with 6 stamens; female flowers 2 on a 2-4 mm peduncle;

acorn 1.2-1.6 cm long, ovoid, hairless, singly or paired on a 0.6-1.3 cm long peduncle; enclosed 1/2 or 1/3 by cup; cup half-round, with straight rim, 1.5-2.3 cm in diameter, with lanceolate, setose, appressed scales; maturation in 2 years, from September to November;

– Sub-genus Quercus, section Lobatae, Series Erythromexicanae, Group Acutifoliae; – The name honors Doctor Jorge Meave del Castillo, Mexican botanist; – Threatened (IUCN Red List Category : VU). – The confusion is possible with Q. xalapensis , Q. skinneri ( but these ones have twigs and petiol glabrous or nearly so, and veins flat adaxially), and with Q. uxoris (which has only 10-14 veins pairs, a cup flattened, an acorn with depressed, tomentose apex); Q. meavei differs from Q. furfuracea which has as well a yellowish tomentum on twigs and petiol, but which has only 6-9 vein pairs, narrower leaves (no more than 5 cm) and shorter teeth (14 mm).