Quercus lobbii Hook. f. & Thomson ex Ettingsh.

TSO logo

Sponsor

Kindly sponsored by
The Trees and Shrubs Online Oak Consortium

Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2022)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2022), 'Quercus lobbii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-lobbii/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

  • Quercus
  • Subgen. Cerris, Sect. Cyclobalanopsis

Common Names

  • 滇西青冈 (dian xi qing gang)

Synonyms

  • Cyclobalanopsis lobbii (Hook.f. & Thomson ex Ettingsh.) Y.C.Hsu & H.Wei Jen
  • Quercus lineata var. lobbii (Hook.f. & Thomson ex Ettingsh.) Wenz.

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

Malesia
Floristic region including the Malay Peninsula Indonesia the Philippines and New Guinea.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
type specimen
A herbarium specimen cited in a taxonomic account to define a particular species or other taxon.

Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2022)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2022), 'Quercus lobbii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-lobbii/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Tree to 15 m tall, young shoots densely yellow-brown tomentose, becoming glabrous with conspicuous lenticels. Leaves evergreen, leathery, ovate to elliptic, to 13 × 5 cm, rounded at the base, taper-pointed at the apex, with up to 20 or sometimes more veins on the each side of the midrib, prominent beneath. Margin conspicuously toothed in the apical ⅔, entire towards the base. They are densely covered in yellow-brown hairs when young becoming glossy dark green and glabrous above when mature, thinly brown-tomentose beneath. Petiole tomentose when young, to 2 cm long. Infructescences very short, to about 5 mm, with several cupules. Cupules bowl-shaped, to 0.8 × 1.5 cm, with six to eight rings of pubescent, toothed scales. Acorns broadly ovoid, to 1.5 × 1.2 cm, ⅓ to ½ enclosed in the cup and ripening the first year. (Menitsky 2005; Huang et al. 1999; le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2006).

Distribution  BangladeshChina W. Yunnan India Arunachal Pradesh, Assam

Habitat Oak-pine forests in the mountains at 1500–3300 m.

USDA Hardiness Zone 9

RHS Hardiness Rating H3

Conservation status Endangered (EN)

Taxonomic note The name often appears in databases as Q. lobbii Ettingsh., but the original authors of the name were Joseph Hooker and Thomas Thomson; the first valid publication was in a work by Ettingshausen (Cameron 2021).

This appears to be the identity of plants introduced by Jacky Pousse from northern Myanmar in 2009 (JP 231). It has been variously referred to as Q. hildebrandii, Q. brandisiana, and Q. lineata. A plant seen at Iturraran Botanical Garden, Spain in 2019 had leaves to 16 × 5.5 cm with about 20 pairs of veins and the margin edged with numerous teeth except at the base. Plants from the same collection grow in Tregrehan, Cornwall, UK, and at Arboretum Chocha, France.

When Q. hildebrandii was published, as Q. lineata var. hildebrandii (Hooker 1888), it was described as having glabrous shoots and the leaves as glaucous and glabrous beneath. Menitsky (2005) stated that the leaves had 10–12 pairs of veins and that it was only known from the type specimen, collected on Mt. Arakan (central west Myanmar). According to Menitsky, Q. brandisiana has a relatively broader, much more leathery leaf without the taper-pointed apex. Soepadmo (1972) stated that Q. lineata only occurs in Malesia. Camus (1931) also regarded Q. lobbii to be distinct from Q. lineata.

The epithet honors Thomas Lobb, a British plant collector who visited India between 1848 and 1853 and collected the type specimen in the Khasi Hills, Assam (Cameron 2021). He was the younger brother of the much better-known Wiliam Lobb. The local name in China can be translated as ‘West Yunnan evergreen oak.’