Quercus skinneri Benth.

southern Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, Guerreo, Hidalgo, Veracruz); Guatemala; El Salvador; Honduras; Nicaragua; 700-2200 m;

15-35 m;

7-25(-30) cm x 3-10(-12); elliptic or ovate; thin or sometimes semi-leathery; apex attenuate, acuminate, bristle-tipped; base truncate, wide, sometimes cordate or obtuse; margin thick, flat or slightly revolute, cartilaginous, with 10-13 pairs of bristle-tipped teeth; dark green to greyish green adaxially, slightly lustrous, hairless or sometimes with a few trichomes along midrib; paler beneath, glabrous or with some hairs along midvein and axil tufts; 9-15 vein pairs, straight and parallel, flat adaxially; epidermis smooth, papillose; petiole thin, 3-5 cm long, glabrous or nearly so; yound leaves covered with deep red pubescence ;

February to March; male catkins 7 cm long, pubescent, usually few-flowered; pistillate ones 0.5 cm long, 1 to 2-flowered;

acorn ovoid 2-5 cm long, light brown, tomentose, with a very thick pericarp and intruded septa; singly or paired on a 0.5-1.5 cm long peduncle; cup half-round or slightly flattened, not rolled at rim, with appressed, pubescent, strongly tuberculate scales, 3-5 cm wide, enclosing less than 1/4 of nut; maturing in 2 years from July to December;

not hardy ; wet montane forests; fast growing;

– Sub-genus Quercus, section Lobatae, Series Erythromexicanae, Group Acutifoliae; – Very polymorphic species, often misidentified in the past; for instance, Q. trichodonta and Q. grandis are, in the opinion of today’s specialists in the Genus Quercus (like Francisco Garin, Spain), probably valid species which deserve further studies. – Silvia Romero Rangel, a today’s Mexican Author (2006), published her revision of the sub-section Acutifoliae , with many modifications of the previous Classification.