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Quercus leucotrichophora Camus

Modern name

Quercus oblongata D.Don

Synonyms

Q. incana Roxb. (1814), not Bartr. (1791)

An evergreen tree up to 80 ft high, whose bark peels off the trunk in large flakes; young shoots clothed with close grey felt. Leaves oblong-lanceolate or narrowly oval, wedge-shaped at the base, tapered to a fine slender point; margins conspicuously toothed except towards the base, 212 to 6 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, upper surface dark green soon becoming glabrous, lower one clothed with a pure white close felt which persists until the leaf falls; the veins are prominent beneath and number eight to twelve each side the midrib; stalk 13 to 58 in. long. Fruits solitary, or sometimes two or three together on a very short, felted stalk; acorns egg-shaped to conical, 1 in. long; acorn-cups 12 in. wide, enclosing about half the acorn, with appressed, whitish scales. The fruits ripen in their second season.

Native of the Himalaya, up to elevations of 8,000 ft. The oak is interesting as the almost inseparable companion in the wild of Rhododendron arboreum, and it was no doubt introduced to this country about the same time – 1815. It just misses being hardy at Kew. During a series of mild winters it will grow 7 or 8 ft high, but a fairly hard winter will cut it back to ground-level and a really hard one kill it outright. It is remarkable that so distinct and beautiful a tree – for the felt beneath the leaves is perhaps the whitest seen in cultivated oaks – should have been so long neglected in the gardens of the south and west. The whiteness of the leaves as seen from the ground and the flaking bark are very noticeable.

There is a small plant of this species at Kew on the Temperate House Terrace. The only open-ground specimen recorded is one of 46 × 314 at Trewithen in Cornwall (1971).

Q. lanata Sm. Q. lanuginosa D. Don, not Lam. – This species is closely allied to Q. leucotricbophora, but the felt on the undersides of the leaves is rusty or fawn-coloured and, according to Camus, the fruits ripen in the first year. Native of the Himalaya, S. China, and Indonesia; introduced about 1818 but probably not now in cultivation.

Q. lodicosa Warb. – An evergreen tree attaining a height of 70 ft in the wild, belonging to the same group as Q. leucotrichophora and, as in that species, the leaves are covered beneath with a dense white felt. The main distinction from Q. leucotricbophora lies in the fruits; the cup is very thick and 34 to almost 1 in. wide and the correspondingly large acorns, indented at the apex. This species was described in 1933 from a specimen collected by Kingdon Ward in the Tsangpo Gorge, S.E. Tibet. It was introduced from N.E. Upper Burma in 1924 by Forrest under F.25405; a tree at Caerhays, Cornwall, raised from these seeds, measures 28 × 112 ft (1966).



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The Trewithen tree now measures 62 × 334 ft (1985).

Genus

Quercus

Other species in the genus