Quercus variabilis Blume

Trees to 30 m tall, deciduous. Branchlets grayish brown, glabrous. Petiole 1-3(-5) cm, glabrous; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 8-15(-20) × 2-6(-8) cm, abaxially densely grayish stellate tomentose, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin with spiniform teeth, apex acuminate; secondary veins 13-18 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident, ± parallel. Female inflorescences axillary on apical part of young shoot. Cupule cupular, ca. 1.5 × 2.5-4 cm including bracts, enclosing 2/3 of nut; bracts subulate, inflexed, pilose. Nut subglobose to broadly ovoid, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., apex rounded, pale brown sericeous; scar ca. 1 cm in diam., raised; stylopodium ca. 2 mm in diam., pale brown tomentose. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Sep-Oct of following year.

A temperate plant. It is native to China, Japan and Korea. It grows in areas with a temperature range of 15.9-18.5°C and rainfall 1,400 to 1,500 mm per year. It can grow on a range of soils with pH from 4 to 8. It does best on fertile well drained soils. In Vietnam it grows about 800-1,000 m altitude. In China it grows in evergreen and deciduous forest below 3,000 m altitude. It suits hardiness zone 5.

The seed is edible. The nuts are ground and used to make soy sauce and also for preparing cold pudding.

Plants can be grown from seeds.