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Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
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'Quercus lancifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Tree to 35 m, 0.75 m dbh. Branchlets initially covered with fawn-coloured tomentum, later grey or buff with pale lenticels. Leaves deciduous, 7–15 × 1.5–5 cm, oblanceolate to ovate, leathery, glabrous, upper surface glossy green and glabrous, lower surface with scattered stellate tomentum and tufts of hair in vein axils, 10–14 secondary veins on each side of the midrib, margins with small bristle-tipped teeth, apex acute; petiole 2–2.5 cm long and glabrous. Infructescence 1–2 cm long with one to two cupules. Cupule saucer-shaped, 1.5–2 cm diameter; scales blunt and appressed. Acorn ovoid, with one-quarter to one-third of its length enclosed in the cupule, 1.8–4.5 cm long, stylopodium prominent. Standley 1922, Trelease 1924. Distribution GUATEMALA; MEXICO: Chiapas, Veracruz. Habitat Montane evergreen forest between 700 and 2000 m asl. USDA Hardiness Zone 9. Conservation status Not evaluated.
Apparently first introduced by Allen Coombes in 1995 from collections (Coombes 249, 250) made in Puebla, this southern species has not performed particularly well in cultivation. The largest at the Hillier Gardens had grown to 2.5 m by 2002, but two others at this location had reached no more than 1.5 m in the same time. A plant at Chevithorne Barton has reached 1.8 m but looks very unhappy, with twiggy stunted growth; when seen in 2005 it showed very short extension growth, and it was further damaged by the 2005–2006 winter. At Shaun Haddock’s Arboretum de la Bergerette Quercus lancifolia died in the cold winter of 2002–2003, along with the other Mexican species Q. planipocula and Q. uxoris (Lamant 2004).