Quercus urbani - Trees and Shrubs Online

Glossary

IUCN

World Conservation Union (formerly the International Union for the Conservation of Nature).

Least Concern

IUCN Red List conservation category: ‘does not qualify for Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.’ ‘Lower Risk’ was formerly used and many tree species are still so-categorised in the Red List.

asl

Above sea-level.

convex

Having a rounded surface.

included

(botanical) Contained within another part or organ.

type specimen

A herbarium specimen cited in a taxonomic account to define a particular species or other taxon.

The leaves of Quercus urbani are flat when they emerge, becoming conspicuously cupped. Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain, July 2019. Image Francisco Garin.

Tree to 20 m tall and 30 cm dbh, usually less, young shoots stout, ridged and densely hairy. Leaves evergreen, leathery, broadly obovate to almost circular, flat when they first open, becoming conspicuously convex, to 29 × 28 cm, rounded at the apex, heart shaped at the base, the margin edged with up to about 1 bristle-tipped teeth, sometimes shallowly lobed. They are red and densely hairy on both sides as they emerge, becoming dark, slightly glossy green and more or less glabrous above except along the 11–12 impressed veins, hairy beneath with a prominent midrib and secondary veins. Petiole stout, 18–38 mm long. Fruits clustered on a stout peduncle to 7 cm long, cupules hemispherical, to about 7 × 7 mm, acorns ovoid, about 10 × 5 mm, ⅓ to ½ included in the cup and ripening the first year. (Valencia Ávalos 1995; McCauley & Oyama 2020).

Distribution Mexico Guerrero, Mexico State

Habitat Oak and pine/oak forest; 1380–2440 m.

USDA Hardiness Zone 9

RHS Hardiness Rating H3

Conservation status Least concern (LC)

Taxonomic note This species was considered by Valencia Ávalos to have a wide distribution in Mexico. However, more recent work (McCauley & Oyama 2020) has shown that it has a more restricted distribution in Guerrero and Mexico State only; plants from other parts of Mexico represent other species. It is one of a group of Mexican species with fruits in racemes and with strongly convex leaves included in Subsection Racemiflorae (see Q. tarahumara).

Quercus urbani was introduced from 2100 m asl in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, by Francisco Garin to Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain. A plant there has reached 6 m tall (F. Garin, pers. comm. 2021), and another at Arboretum Chocha was about 3 m in 2019 (pers. obs. AJC). It has been planted in other gardens but has often failed and is assumed to be tender.

It was named after Prof. Ignaz Urban of the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, who enabled Trelease to study the type specimen. The epithet has been spelt ‘urbanii’ (e.g. Spellenberg, Bacon & Breedlove 1995), but Trelease, as did authors of other species named after Urban, derived it from the Latinized form Urbanus and hence ‘urbani’ is the correct spelling. The common name used in Mexico and referred to by Trelease, encino cucharilla, derives from the Spanish word for a small spoon, referring to the shape of the leaves.

The conservation status ‘Least Concern’ is given here following the latest IUCN assessment, but that was based on the earlier understanding that Quercus urbani had a wider distribution than is now known to be the case (see taxonomic note). A revised assessment is needed.

Quecus urbani: Red and hairy young foliage on stout shoots at Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain in July 2013. Image Francisco Garin.

The leaves of Quercus urbani remain conspicuously hairy beneath. Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain, July 2017. Image Francisco Garin.

Planted in 2010, Quercus urbani is growing well in the mild climate at Iturraran Botanic Garden, Spain. July 2019. Image Francisco Garin.

Red young leaves of Quercus urbani in Taxco, Guerrero. Image Béatrice Chassé.

Maturing fruits of Quercus urbani at Arboretum Chocha, France, in June 2023. Image Béatrice Chassé.

Quercus urbani is growing well at Arboretum Chocha, France, June 2023. Image Béatrice Chassé.

Foliage of Q. urbani at Iturraran Botanical Garden, Spain, in November 2021. Image Philippe de Spoelberch.

A tree of Quercus urbani at Iturraran Botanical Garden, Spain, in July 2019. Image Francisco Garin.

Quercus urbani, in the snow, at Botanic Treasures, Belgium (10 January 2026). Image Raf Lenaerts.

Foliage on Quercus urbani, with conspicuously convex leaves at Botanic Treasures (Raf Lenaerts), Belgium - from Taxco, Mexico (16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Leaf arrangement of Quercus urbani, with ridged dark grey shoot (Botanic Treasures, Belgium - 16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Quercus urbani detail of small ovoid buds and some remaining pubescence on petioles and twig (Botanic Treasures, Belgium - 16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Leaf on Quercus urbani, with relatively short stout petiole and a convex surface (Botanic Treasures, Belgium - 16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Quercus urbani lamina lower surface with remaining yellowish pubescence (Botanic Treasures, Belgium - 16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Superficial teeth, ending in a bristle on the lamina margin of Quercus urbani (Botanic Treasures, Belgium - 16 December 2024). Image © Jan De Langhe.

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