Vasilis Teodoridis:
Fagaceae | Lithocarpus
40. Lithocarpus corneus (Loureiro) Rehder in Bailey; Stand. Cycl. Hort. 3569. 1917.
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Trees usually less than 15 m tall. Branchlets light tawny; dark gray; or silver-gray; glabrous or pubescent; sparsely lenticellate; lenticels raised. Leaves usually congested at apex of branches; petiole 0.5-4.5 cm; leaf blade (5-)10-15 x 2-4.5 cm; papery to leathery; concolorous; with ± translucent; minute (visible under hand lens) scalelike glands; base cuneate to subrounded and symmetric or oblique; margin dentate; shallowly undulate; or rarely entire; apex acuminate to acute; secondary veins 9-26 on each side of midvein; ending in teeth; tertiary veins abaxially slender; evident; subparallel. Male inflorescences often with female flowers borne at base of rachis; Female inflorescences less than 10 cm; cupules in clusters of ca. 3 or sometimes solitary. Infructescences 5-7; rachis 3-4 mm thick. Cupule cupular to subglobose; 2.2-4.5 x 2.5-5.5 cm; enclosing ca. 1/2 of nut; wall (1-)2-3 mm thick; woody; and basally thickened; bracts triangular to rhomboid; center and margin ridged or fused with cupule and ± united into concentric rings. Nut subglobose to turbinate; rarely glabrous; apex rounded; flat; or slightly concave; wall ± horny and usually thicker than wall of cupule; scar covering 1/2 to most of nut; convex. Cotyledons 4-8-lobed. Fl. almost all year around but mainly May-Jul; fr. maturing on 1-year-old branchlets.
Broad-leaved evergreen forests; frequent on sunny slopes and in dry places; coastal regions; below 1000 m. S Fujian; Guangdong; Guangxi; S Guizhou; Hainan; S Hunan; Taiwan; EC and SE Yunnan [NE Vietnam]
A widespread and variable species. A critical review of the pattern of variation within Lithocarpus corneus may show that the acceptance of most of the varieties below is unjustified.