Quercus oleoides Schltdl. & Cham.

Mexico (Campeche, Vera Cruz, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Tabasco, Yucatan); Central America (Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua); Texas; 150-1100 m;

5-10 m tall usually, but may reach 30 m, with trunk 50-70 cm in diameter; sometimes shrub 1-3 m tall; crown dense, branched; cylindrical trunk;

3-8 x 1,5-4 cm; deciduous; elliptic or rhombic, oboval to oblanceolate; leathery; apex round or obtuse, seldom acute, mucronate; base attenuate, sometimes slightly cuneate; margin thickened, slightly revolute, entire or sometimes with 1-4 pairs of mucronate teeth in apical half (leaves of young plants are likely dentate from just above the base); olive-green, slightly lustrous above, hairless or with scarce stellate trichomes toward the base of the blade; yellowish grey to brownish-grey beneath, densely covered with stellate, appressed, short trichomes (observed only under a microscope , and appearing glabrous to naked eye); 5-8 vein pairs, impressed above, raised beneath; épidermis papillose; petiole 4-12 mm long, yellowish, pubescent;

May; staminate inflorescences glabrous, 2-4 cm long; pistillate inflorescences 2-4 cm, bearing 2-3 flowers;

acorn 1.5 to 2.5 cm long, 1-1.2 cm in diameter; broadly elliptic, mucronate; shiny dark brown at maturity (pale green when young); hairless; singly or paired; sessile or on a peduncle 1-4 cm long; enclosed 1/3 by cup; cup half-round or obconical to turbinate, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, with free tomentose scales; maturing in 1 year, from September to December;

– A. Camus : n° 170 ; – Sub-genus Quercus, Section Virentes; – Close to to Q. fusiformis with which a confusion is possible, but Q. fusiformis has narrowly oval or lanceolate or oblong leaves, and an acorn spindle-shaped; – Most often, Q. oleoides occurs at lower altitudes than any other species in the genus. It is considered a species of tropical distribution.