Quercus sartorii Liebm.

A species with attractive, lustrous green foliage, adorned with forward-sloping bristle-tipped lobes, which emerges covered in red hairs in spring and again in late summer.

Quercus sartorii is endemic to eastern Mexico, from Tamaulipas to Oaxaca, and grows on non-calcarous substrates of volcanic origin, usually deep and rich, potentially clayey. It appreciates warm or moderately humid exposures. It is found in association with Q. scytophylla, Q. martinezii, Q. rysophylla, Q. laeta, Liquidambar styraciflua and Pinus strobus var. chapensis, among others (le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2010).

The species was introduced to cultivation by Bob Berry, who collected it at Rancho de La Mesa, Veracruz, in 1982, and grew it at his Hackfalls Arboretum in New Zealand. Though he first identified it as Quercus huitamalcana (a synonym of Q. xalapensis), annual maturation of acorns confirms its identity as Q. sartorii. Accessioned in 1983, it had reached 12 m × 51 cm dbh in 2016. Berry collected the species again in Puebla and Veracruz in the years following, the latest in 1989, from near Ohuapan. A tree from this accession, though the youngest of the specimens at Hackfalls, seems to have achieved the largest dbh (56 cm in 2020), but the height is not recorded (Hackfalls Arboretum 2025). A tree that is probably Q. sartorii grows at Massey University, Palmerston North, having apparently been inadvertently received as a spontaneous seedling growing in a pot sent from a local nursery, next to the plant that had been acquired. The tree stood at around 16 m in 2019. If this is indeed the identity of the species, the most likely origin is an errant acorn from Hackfalls Arboretum (Cameron 2019).

Quercus sartorii was introduced to the UK by Allen Coombes from Puebla (CMBS 248) in 1985. (Heathcoat Amory (2009) mentions an independent introduction in 1994, but provides no further detail, nor is there any evidence that plants from an earlier introduction have survived.). Plants from this introduction grow at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, where the largest reached 16.7 m × 30 cm in 2021, at Wisley, Surrey (9.6 m × 25 cm in 2019), and at Chevithorne Barton, Devon (12 m × 23 cm in 2017) (The Tree Register 2025). A tree at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, grown as Q. furfuracea, was introduced from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, by Allen Coombes in 1996 (CMBS 367). It is very similar in habit to plants of Q. sartorii there, differing only in its smaller leaves. This tree was 18.2 m × 31.2 cm in 2023 (B. Clarke, pers. comm. 2025). Younger trees of Q. sartorii are found in several other collections in the UK, mostly accessioned in the early 2000s.

In France, it was introduced to the Arboretum national des Barres in 1995, from seed collected in Puebla at an elevation of 1805 m, and to Arboretum de Chocha, Ustaritz (le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2010). Later introductions can be found in several specialised collections in France and Spain.

In cultivation, it has proved hardy in Devon, UK, rated by Heathcoat-Amory (2012) as among the most hardy of the Mexican oaks in his collection. In Illinois, USA, Sternberg (1995) found it showed early promise of being winter-hardy in Zone 5, despite losing its leaves, but it only survived a few seasons and has not shown long-term hardiness (G. Sternberg, pers. comm. 2025).

Quercus sartorii was named by Liebmann to honour German farmer and botanist Carl Sartorius (1796–1872), who was born in Gunderhausen near Darmstadt and was educated at the University of Giessen. He fled Germany in 1824 on account of political disturbances and took refuge in Mexico, where he changed his name to Carlos and was successful in the mining industry in Mexico State. In 1830, he bought land at Mirador, near Huatusco, Veracruz, at the foot of the Orizaba mountain chain. There he dedicated himself to the cultivation of the land and to collecting plants in the area. He grew sugar cane and ran a distillery, where he served as a gracious host to many travellers in Mexico, including the Danish botanist Frederick Liebmann and the German plant collector Karl Hartweg (Natural History Museum (BM) 2025). Liebmann did not make explicit the dedication to Sartorius in the original publication (Liebmann 1854), but one imagines it might have been a gesture of gratitude for many a beaker of aguardiente de caña enjoyed as part of the German emigré’s hospitality. The epithet is sometimes misspelt sartori. The misnomer ‘Sartor’s Oak’ is fairly widespread (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009; Muffly 2020; iNaturalist 2025). The correct version of that name (Sartorius’ Oak) is not commonly used.