Quercus laceyi Small

N.E. Mexico (Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Tamaulipas); S.E USA : West Texas (Edwards Plateau); 350 to 2200 m;

reaches 8 m. tall;

3-7(-10) cm x 2-5(-8); deciduous; relatively thin; elliptic or oboval; apex rounded or obtuse, retuse; base round or slightly cuneate and decurrent, seldom somewhat cordate; margin flat, thin, not cartilaginous, wavy-crenate, slightly revolute, with 1-4 rounded, minutely ucronate lobes each side, seldom entire or dentate; young leaves reddish and with white glandular hairs both sides; mature leaves grey-green or sometimes yellewish green above, not lustrous, hairless or with some stellate trichomes along midrib; paler beneath, glabrous or with some white glandular trichomes; 6-9 yellowish vein pairs, flat or slightly raised both sides; epidermis papillose; petiole 2-12 mm long, thin, glabrescent;

male flowers with glabrous yellow anthers, numerous on 1-2 cm long catkins; female inflorescences 3 cm long, 1-5-flowered distally;

acorn 1.2-1.8 cm long, oblong or barrel-shaped, often flattened at apex, brown; 1 to 2 together; stalkless or subsessile with a peduncle rarely if ever exceeding 1 cm long, in the axils of the leaves; enclosed 1/3 or less by cup; cup saucer-shaped or shallowly cup-shaped, with slightly tomentose scales, thickened at base but not strongly tuberculate; cotyledons free; maturing in 1 year from August to October;

– A. Camus : n° 246; – Sub-genus Quercus, Section Quercus, Series Polymorphae; – Howard Lacey discovered it near his ranch at Kerville (Texas), in 1872; – Possible confusion with Q. glaucoides , but this species grows only in Center and South-West Mexico, has coriaceous leaves, 2-5 mm long thick petioles, foliar base cordate, acorn subsessile or on a stalk to 8 cm, cotyledons marginally fused, anthers pilose. – Possible confusion as well with Q. porphyrogenita (see this file).