Oaks of the World

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  Quercus acutissima
Author Carruth. 1861 J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 6: 33 1862.
Synonyms acutissima var. depressinucata H. Wei Jen & R.Q.Gao 1984
acutissima var. septentrionalis Liou 1936
acutissima var. lioui Kozlov 1933
bombyx K.Koch 1873
castaneifolia Morrison
lunglingensis Hu 1951
serrata S. & Z. 1846 not Thunb. nor Carruthers
uchiyamana Nakai 1914
Local names Japanese chestnut oak ; saw-toothed oak ; kunugi ; ma li ;
Range Japan , North China , Korea, Himalaya, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand ; from 100 to 2200 m;
introduced in Europe in 1862 ;
Growth habit 2 to 15 m  tall (reaches 30 m? with trunk to 1 m in diametre) ; pyramidal crown, becoming rounded and loose ;
Leaves 8-15 cm long, 4-6cm wide ; marcescent ; entire, margin with 10-20 pairs of short teeth, long bristle-tipped; lustrous green above, dull and paler beneath; few hairs on both surfaces; base rounded or coarsely cuneate; long pointed apex; 12-20pairs of parallel veins; 1 to 2 cm long, fluted petiole, rusty coloured in autumn.
Flowers male flowers on yellowish, pendulous and 10-15 cm long catkins; appearing at the end of spring; female flowers inconspicuous.
Fruits acorn 2.5 cm long, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, hidden in the long, curved, pubescent scales of the hemispherical cup; solitary or paired; subglobular, with depressed apex; enclosed for 1/2 in the 2 to 4 cm wide cup including long recurved scales; maturing in 2 years ;

Bark, twigs and
buds

dark grey bark, furrowed on the young trunks, scaly and almost corky on the old ones; pale green twig, becoming chestnut brown, pubescent at first then hairless; 2 to 3 cm long and pointed buds, with imbricated scales, grey brown, with a greenish wooly pubescence;
Hardiness zone, habitat prefers well drained and lime-free soils ; but very adaptable; hardy, but prefers moist and warm sites; fast growing when young;
Miscellaneous -- A. Camus : n° 132 ;
-- Sub-genus Cerris, Section Cerris, Sub-section Campylolepides (with chenii and variabilis);
-- Rare ;
-- No cultivar ; no serious deseases; propagation by seeds;
-- The subspecies roxburghii (= Q.roxburghii Endl.) described by Camus is in fact a species of the Castanopsis genus (= Castanopsis indica) ;

Subspecies and
varieties

3 subspecies :

1/ subsp acutissima
the type described above;

2/ subsp chenii = Q.chenii Nakai

3/ subsp kingii Menitsky 1973
= Q. serrata var.roxburghii (Endl.) King 1889
= Q. acutissima subsp roxburghii (Endl.) Camus 1934
= Q.polyantha Lindl.ex Wall. 1829 , nom. inval.
to 12 m: leaves oval elliptic, 15-20 cm, with 3-5 mm long erected teeth; densely yellow pubescence beneath; base rounded or cordate; fast growing; tree from Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, Assam, Laos, N. Myanmar ;

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