Oaks of the World

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  Quercus melissae
Author

Nixon & Barrie 2017
Synonyms
Local names
Range Mexico (Chiapas); Guatemala; 700-2300 m;
Growth habit reaches 20 m;
Leaves

6-17 cm x 4-9, ca. 2 times as long as wide; oboval to broadly elliptic; apex broadly acute or obtuse to rounded; base rounded or subcordate; margin entire to crenate or irregularly dentate; adaxially dull grey-green, glabrous; abaxially with scattered, tangled, multiradiate hairs, with or without some glandular trichomes along veins; 10-15 pairs of secondary veins, ascending, straight, reaching the margin; petiole 4-9 mm, glabrous or nearly so with a scurfy pubescence;

Flowers
Fruits

acorn 1.8-2.1 cm long, 1.2-1.6 cm wide, ovoid, light to dark brown, puberulent at apex, single or paired, subsessile or on a 0.2-1.3 cm long peduncle; cup halfround or slightly flattened, with greyish pubescent scales, tuberculate near base; annual; cotyledons most often fused;

Bark, twigs and
buds

twig 2-3 mm thick, grey or dark brown, glabrous or with a scattered scurfy pubescence; lenticels slightly raised; stipules deciduous, sometimes long-lasting; bud 4-6 mm, ovoid to conical, acute at tip, brown or tan;
Hardiness zone, habitat dry oak and oak-pine forests;
Miscellaneous

-- Sub-genus Quercus, Section Quercus; Series Leucomexicanae;
-- Differs from Q. segoviensis Liebm. which has shorter petioles (2-4 mm), longer peduncles (1-6 cm) and free cotyledons;
-- Related to Q. glaucoides Mart. & Gal.
-- Resembles Q. tuberculata Liebm. from the Northern and Western Mexico; may be confused as well with Q. liebmannii, but the latter has free cotyledons and the lower side of the leaves is densely tomentose.
Subspecies and
varieties
Pictures