Quercus cupreata Trel. & C.H.Mull.

Tree to 10 m tall with graceful, spreading branches. Bark deeply fissured, dark grey or black. Young shoots slender, glabrous, red-brown. Leaves evergreen, narrowly lanceolate, to 12 cm long and 4 cm across, apex pointed, ending in a bristle-tipped tooth, base broadly tapered, glossy dark green and glabrous above, paler beneath, glossy and glabrous. They have several lobes on each side that end in long, aristate teeth. Petiole slender, pink, to 3 cm long. Cupule funnel-shaped, margin spreading. Acorns biennial, borne singly or in pairs, ovoid, 1.5 cm long, about ⅓ enclosed in the cup. (Mueller 1936; Hélardot 2025). The original description stated that the leaves are “glossy copper colored beneath” but this has not been seen in cultivated trees. At the Puebla University Botanic garden the leaves can become reddish beneath after cold weather, but the type specimen was collected in July.

Distribution  Mexico Nuevo León, Tamaulipas

Habitat Oak woods on mountain slopes.

USDA Hardiness Zone 8

RHS Hardiness Rating H4

Conservation status Endangered (EN)

Taxonomic note In the original description this oak was considered most closely related to Quercus grahamii, which was distinguished from Q. cupreata by its leaves being only toothed (i.e. without long aristate points) and barely lobed and having a more rounded base. From Q. canbyi it differs in its biennial acorns. The original description described the leaves as ‘glossy copper-colored beneath,’ from which the specific epithet is derived. Trelease and Muller also described, at the same time, Q. cupreata f. serrata, that had ‘less bronzed leaves.’ Both were collected near Monterrey, on the same day.