Quercus engleriana - Trees and Shrubs Online

The underside of the leaves or Quercus engleriana are initially covered with dense, yellowish brown or bronze, floccose tomentum. The Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain, May 2011. Image Francisco Garin.

Trees to 25 m tall, usually around 6 m, evergreen or semievergreen. Bark thin, dark brown, consisting of small irregular scales. Young branchlets yellowish gray tomentose, glabrescent. Petiole 1–2 cm, tomentose, glabrescent; leaves rigid, leathery, leaf blade lanceolate, ovate, ovate-elliptic, or elliptic, 6–16 × 2.5–5.5 cm, upper face dark green, shiny, glabrous or rugose with some sparse pubescence, underside initially covered with dense, yellowish brown or bronze, floccose tomentum, soon becoming glabrous or retaining fascicled hairs on axil of veins, base rounded, broadly cuneate, or rarely shallowly cordate, margin serrate with sharp, forward-facing teeth from middle to apex or sometimes entire, apex acuminate; midvein and secondary veins adaxially flat or sometimes impressed; secondary veins 10–13 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident to prominent or obscured by indumentum when young. Female inflorescences axillary on apical portion of young shoots, 1–3 cm. Infructescence 1–5 cm; cupules 1–10. Cupule bowl- or funnel-shaped, 4–7 × 8–12 mm, enclosing 1/3–1/2 of nut; scales ovate-lanceolate, c. 1 mm, grayish brown pubescent basal to middle, apex purple red and glabrous, interior of cupule silky. Nut narrowly ovoid, 1–2 × 0.6–1 cm, glabrous; scar 3–5 mm in diameter, raised; stylopodium 2–3 mm. Flowers May–June, acorns ripen in November of the same year (China). (Huang et al.1999; le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2010).

Distribution China Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang India Assam

Habitat Mixed mesophytic forests in rocky sites; 700–2700 m asl.

USDA Hardiness Zone 7-8

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note Quercus marlipoensis Hu & W.C.Cheng is closely related to Q. engleriana and may eventually be regarded as a synonym. It was introduced from 1789 m in Ma-li-po county, Yunnan, China in 2013 and is represented by a plant at Tregrehan, UK. It has much broader leaves than forms of Q. engleriana seen and also a much more persistent tomentum on the veins of the leaf underside (T. Hudson pers. comm.).

Introduced to the Coombe Wood Nursery in 1900 by E.H. Wilson, who observed that this is always a small tree and is common in rocky places at 1000–2000 m asl. According to Bean (1976), it is one of the finest of hardy evergreen oaks for its foliage and in the milder counties of the UK should make a very handsome tree. A tree at Caerhays, England, obtained from Kew in 1921, measured 10 m × 21 cm dbh in 1984 but has since died (O. Johnson pers. comm.). A large tree at Werrington Park, England, presumably of the same source, stood 11.5 m tall in 1966 (Tree Register 2020), and was still alive in 2000; however, it has not been possible to confirm its continued existence and doubts have been expressed about its identification (O. Johnson pers. comm.). Several younger specimens are recorded in the Tree Register (2020), of which the tallest grows at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, England and reached 7.1 m × 4.5 cm in 2020, accessioned in 1980 (B. Clarke pers. comm. 2020).

This name has been traditionally applied to the plant described here with rigid, leathery leaves that have a dense floccose tomentum on the underside when young. More recent introductions under this name appear rather different with larger, thinner, and almost glabrous leaves. They are still accepted by Chinese botanists as part of Q. engleriana. Trees of this form grow at the Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain, about 10 m tall in 2020 with leaves up to 25 × 10 cm (F. Garin pers. comm. 2020); another specimen in Arboretum des Pouyouleix, France has reached 7 m (B. Chassé pers. comm. 2020).

Described in 1897 and named after Prof. Adolf Engler (1844–1930), German botanist and professor at the University of Berlin and Director of the Berlin-Dahlem Botanic Garden.

A Quercus engleriana at Arboretum des Pouyouleix, France, planted in 2007 and here shown measuring 7 m in August 2020. Image Béatrice Chassé.

One of the two specimens of Quercus engleriana at the Iturraran Botanic Garden, January 2017. Image Francisco Garin.

Bark on a young Quercus engleriana at the Iturraran Botanic Garden, January 2017. Image Francisco Garin.

The upper face of Quercus engleriana leaves are dark green, shiny, glabrous or rugose with some sparse pubescence. Arboretum des Pouyouleix, August 2010. Image Charles Snyers d'Attenhoven.

Quercus marlipoensis is very closely related to Q. engleriana (see Taxonomic Note) and is growing well from a recent introduction at Tregrehan, Cornwall, UK. 29 May 2022. Image Jack Aldridge.

The lower face of the leaves on Quercus engleriana soon become glabrous, here seen at the Iturraran Botanical Garden in January 2017. Image Francisco Garin.

New shoots on Quercus engleriana covvered with yellowish gray tomentum at the Iturraran Botanic Garden, July 2013. Image Francisco Garin.

The secondary veins on Quercus engleriana leaves are sometimes impressed, as on this tree at the Iturraran Botanic Garden, July 2013. Image Francisco Garin.

Quercus engleriana are 1 to 5 cm long, here seen at the Iturraran Botanic Garden in July 2013. Image Francisco Garin.

Young shoots and male flowers spikes emerging at Penrice Castle in April 2017. Apparently this was the first time it flowered there. Image Caerhays Castle Gardens.

Foliage of Quercus engleriana accession 1980.0440*A, at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK (12 October 2009). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Fertile branchlet and leaf with partly detached indumentum on Quercus engleriana (Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK – 12 October 2009). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Foliage on Quercus engleriana, from a tree at Tregrehan Garden, UK (29 September 2015). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Leaves on Quercus engleriana, with the lamina ovate oblong and the venation strongly impressed (Tregrehan Garden, UK – 29 September 2015). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Detail with stipules on Quercus engleriana (Tregrehan Garden, UK – 29 September 2015). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Lamina lower surface detail on Quercus engleriana (Tregrehan Garden, UK – 29 September 2015). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Quercus engleriana Seemen

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