An almost evergreen tree usually 20 to 30 ft high, occasionally taller; young stems grey tomentose, slowly becoming glabrous and reddish brown. Leaves persisting for a year or slightly more, lanceolate to elliptic, tapered at the apex to an acute point, 2 to 4 in. long, up to 1 in. wide, upper surface at first covered with whitish or greyish stellate hairs, becoming glabrous, dark green and lustrous, lower surface with a persistent dense white or grey tomentum, margins usually entire, sometimes undulately toothed or even faintly spine-toothed; petiole about 1⁄2 in. long. Fruits usually solitary, sessile or shortly stalked; acorns ovoid-conic, 1⁄2 to 3⁄8 in. long, one-third enclosed in a thick hemispherical cup downy on the inside, covered with appressed, obtuse, downy scales.
Native of the south-western USA, where, according to Sargent, it occurs on slopes of cañons and on high ridges at 6,000 to 7,000 ft. Of recent introduction.