Shrubs or trees , deciduous, to 10 m. Bark gray, furrowed, checkered, or scaly. Twigs gray, 2-3(-4) mm diam., densely tomentose. Buds reddish brown, broadly ovoid, distally rounded, 2-2.5 mm, densely yellowish pubescent; scales gray-puberulent; stipules persistent, 1-4, subulate, pubescent, at base of terminal buds. Leaves: petiole 3-5(-8) mm. Leaf blade elliptic or oblong to ovate or obovate, (25-)40-50(-85) × (18-)20-30(-50) mm, base rounded or shallowly cordate, margins entire or toothed to sublobate, secondary veins 8 to 10 on each side, somewhat branching, apex broadly rounded to acute; surfaces abaxially yellowish or grayish, densely stellate with velvety hairs, adaxially green, sparsely soft-pubescent with prominent, spreading, stellate hairs, felty to touch, secondary veins somewhat prominent on both surfaces, even under dense tomentum. Acorns 1-3 on tomentose peduncle 15-35(-60) mm; cup hemispheric, 7-10 mm deep × 10-15 mm wide, enclosing 1/2 nut, scales proximally thickened, distally appressed, densely gray-puberulent, tips reddish, ultimately glabrate; nut ovoid, 14-18 × 10-12 mm, puberulent, eventually glabrate. Cotyledons connate.
Dry soils in open grassy hills, thornscrubs, mesquite-grasslands, pine-oak forests and limestone hills; at elevations from 400-2,700 metres.
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