Mongolian Oak

A widespread and variable species. The name Quercus wutaishanica (Q. liaotungensis) has been used for those plants from NW China that have smaller leaves and flatter cupule bracts, but these are clinal differences. In addition, many leaf forms of Q. mongolica have been recognized as varieties, but these are merely extreme cases within the variation of the species and do not warrant even varietal rank.

Trees to 30 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets purple-brown, angular, glabrous, lenticellate. Petiole 2-8 mm, glabrous; leaf blade obovate to narrowly so, (5-)7-19(-23) × (2-)3-11 cm, hairy along veins, glabrescent, base narrowly rounded to auriculate, margin with (5-)7-10 undulate to rough serrations on each side, apex truncate, shortly mucronate, or cuspidate; secondary veins (5-)10-18 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident. Female inflorescences axillary on apical part of young shoot, 0.5-2 cm; cupules 4 or 5 but usually only 1 or 2 fertile. Perianth 6-lobed. Cupule cupular, 0.8-1.5 × 1.2-1.8(-2.8) cm, enclosing 1/3-1/2 of nut; bracts basal from cupule rim triangular-ovate, abaxial surface semiglobose tuberculate, sparsely to densely grayish pubescent; bracts at rim of cupule patent, margin fimbriate. Nut narrowly ovoid, ovoid, or ovoid-ellipsoid, (1.5-)2-2.4 × (1-)1.3-1.8(-2.3) cm, glabrous except for apex; scar 5-8(-13) mm in diam., slightly raised; stylopodium ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.

Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan [Japan, Korea, Russia]

Mixed mesophytic forests; 200-2500 m.

Quercus crispula Blume; Q. crispula var. manschurica Koidzumi; Q. grosseserrata Blume; Q. kirinensis Nakai; Q. liaotungensis Koidzumi; Q. mongolica subsp. crispula (Blume) Menitsky; Q. mongolica var. grosseserrata (Blume) Rehder & E. H. Wilson; Q. mongolica var. kirinensis (Nakai) Kitagawa; Q. mongolica var. liaotungensis (Koidzumi) Nakai; Q. mongolica var. macrocarpa H. W. Jen & L. M. Wang; Q. mongolica var. manschurica (Koidzumi) Nakai; Q. sessiliflora Salisbury var. mongolica (Fischer ex Ledebour) Franchet; Q. wutaishanica Mayr.