Quercus xalapensis Bonpl.

Mexico (Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Veracruz); 1100-2000 m ;

5-25 m tall; trunk to 45-150 cm in diameter;

7-16 x 2.5-6 cm; deciduous; semi-leathery; more or less broadly oval, lanceolate, seldom elliptic or oblong; apex acute or acuminate, aristate; base obtuse, rounded, sometimes truncate or subcordate; margin flat, cartilaginous, dentate from base to apex (5-10 pairs of 0.5-2 mm long teeth with long bristle-tips); adaxially green, lustrous, hairless or with some short, stellate, stalked trichomes near base of the midvein; abaxially light green, hairless or with axil tufts of large stalked stellate hairs, and short stellate hairs scattered on the blade and the veins, without golden glandular hairs; 6-11 vein pairs, orangish, strongly raised abaxially, mostly flat above (seldom impressed); epidermis slightly papillose; petiole 1-4 cm long, glabrous or with some stellate trichomes;

from February to April; male inflorescences 4-9 cm long, with at least 30 flowers; pistillate inflorescences very short, bearing 1-3 flowers;

acorn 1-1.5 cm long, 1.1-1.4 wide; ovoid to globose; glabrescent, mucronate; singly or paired; subsessile on a 0.2-0.3 cm long peduncle; cup half-round or turbinate, 1.3-1.9 cm wide, with tawny tomentose, appressed scales, enclosing 1/3 to 1/2 of nut; pericarp pubescent inside; maturing in 2 years in September;

not quite hardy (zone 7-8);

– A. Camus : n° 395; – Sub-genus Quercus, section Lobatae, Series Erythromexicanae, Group Acutifoliae; – For Silvia Romero Rangel, in her revision of the sub-section Acutifoliae, in 2006, the taxonomy of this group is strongly modified : see her classification . – For S. Valencia 2017 Q. sierramadrensis is a synonym of Q. saltillensis – Possible confusion with Q. paxtalensis (voir ce mot).