Quercus lodicosa O.E. Warb. & E.F. Warb.

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Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2021)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2021), 'Quercus lodicosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-lodicosa/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

IUCN
World Conservation Union (formerly the International Union for the Conservation of Nature).
Xizang
See Tibet.
acorn
Fruit of Quercus; a single-seeded nut set in a woody cupule.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
dbh
Diameter (of trunk) at breast height. Breast height is defined as 4.5 feet (1.37 m) above the ground.

Credits

Allen Coombes & Roderick Cameron (2021)

Recommended citation
Coombes, A. & Cameron, R. (2021), 'Quercus lodicosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-lodicosa/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Evergreen trees 15–20 m tall. Young twigs densely reddish tomentose, grayish brown with age, glabrescent, with inconspicuous lenticels. Petiole 0.8–2 cm, tomentose, glabrescent; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 7–14 × 3.5–5 cm, densely reddish tomentose when young, the lower surface densely whitish or yellowish gray tomentose with age, on the upper surface the midvein retains pubescence along the lower half; leaf base broadly cuneate and sometimes asymmetrical, margin sharply serrate except close to the base, apex cuspidate to shortly acuminate; midvein slightly raised on the upper side; secondary veins 10–19 on each side of midvein, adaxially impressed and very prominent on the underside. Cupule disc-shaped, shallow, 5–10 mm × 1.8–2.2 cm, enclosing only the base of the nut; scales broadly ovate, thick and hard, crowded, reddish brown, tomentose. Acorn light brown, oblate-conical, to 2.2 × 0.5–2 cm, glabrous or apex slightly brown tomentose, borne singly or in pairs, ripening in the first year. (Huang et al.1999; le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant 2010).

Distribution  Myanmar North China SE Xizang (Tibet)

Habitat Evergreen montane forests, around 3000 m asl in northern Myanmar, and between 1400–2400 m asl in southeast Xizang. In the basin of the Tsangpo River it grows in open areas as the dominant species or in isolated groups in association with Pinus tabuliformis, P. armandii, P. massoniana and P. wallichiana. In sectors sheltered from the wind, it forms pure stands.

USDA Hardiness Zone 8

Conservation status Endangered (EN)

Quercus lodicosa is similar to Q. leucotrichophora. According to Bean (1976) the main distinction is to be found in the acorn cups, which are thick, shallow, and wide (0.5–1 × 1.8–2.2 cm cf. 1–2.5 × 1.2–1.5 cm in Q. leucotrichophora), and in the acorns, which are indented at the apex (mucronate in Q. leucotrichophora). It is very rare in cultivation, if it survives at all. A tree at Caerhays, Cornwall, was raised from Forrest’s original introduction, from Myanmar in 1924, under F. 25405. It measered 8.5 m × 14 cm dbh in 1967 (Tree Register 2020), but has apparently died since. No other record of this tree in cultivation has been found.

The species is not listed by IUCN (2020), and in Oldfield and Eastwood’s Red List of Oaks (2007) it was listed as Data Defficient. According to le Hardÿ de Beaulieu and Lamant (2010) it is under threat of extinction in southeast Xizang.

The species was described in 1933 from a specimen collected by Kingdon Ward in the Tsangpo Gorge. The epithet derives from the Latin lodix = small blanket or coverlet, referring to the dense white felt that covers the undersides of the leaves.