Quercus fruticosa Brot.

A semi-evergreen shrub often forming matted scrub about 1 ft high, but in good soil and other conditions it is to be found 3 to 6 ft (rarely 12 ft) high. Leaves almost sessile, 1 to 2 in. long, oval, rounded or subcordate at the base, spiny-toothed, more or less matted at first with grey, stellate down beneath; veins and marginal teeth in four to seven pairs, the latter triangular and spiny-pointed. Acorns about 1 in. long, ovoid, about two-thirds enclosed by the cup which is on a stalk 1⁄2 in. long.

Native of the south-western part of the Iberian peninsula, and of N.W. Morocco. Near Lisbon it is, or used to be, abundant as matted scrub about 1 ft high. It was cultivated in the Milford Nurseries, near Godalming, as long ago as 1827, and an acorn-bearing shoot was figured in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, June 24, 1874, p. 113. The late Sir Oscar Warburg of Boidier, near Epsom, and Capt. Collingwood Ingram of Benenden, Kent, reintroduced this oak. It is hardy.