Sandpaper Oak

Apparent hybridization between Quercus vaseyana and Q . pungens is discussed under the latter species.

Shrubs or small trees , evergreen or subevergreen, to 10 m. Bark dark brown, furrowed and exfoliating in long strips. Twigs reddish or grayish brown, 1-1.5 mm diam., short stellate-tomentose or tomentulose, later glabrate or persistently pubescent, rarely glabrous. Buds dark red-brown or gray, round-ovoid, 1-1.5 mm, apex obtuse, sparsely pubescent or glabrate. Leaves: petiole to 5 mm. Leaf blade narrowly lanceolate to usually oblong, mostly planar or slightly convex, 20-60(-90) × 10-20 mm, often rather leathery, base cuneate to rounded, margins coarsely 3-5-toothed on each side or shallowly lobed or entire, with teeth or lobes acute or obtuse, mucronate-tipped, secondary veins 4-6 on each side, usually branched, apex acute, rarely obtuse; surfaces abaxially densely stellate with minute appressed hairs, rarely glabrate and lustrous green, adaxially dark green, lustrous, glabrous or very sparsely stellate-puberulent. Acorns subsessile or on peduncle 2-3 mm; cup saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, 3-4 mm deep × 10 mm wide, margin thin, scales reddish brown, strongly, regularly tuberculate; nut light brown, ovoid to oblong or subcylindric, to 12 × 12 mm, glabrous. Cotyledons distinct.

Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León).

Flowering spring.

Dry limestone slopes, oak and mesquite woodlands, juniper woodlands, and canyons and ravines in otherwise dry, open grasslands, sometimes descending into margins of dry scrub; 300-600m.

Quercus pungens Liebmann var. vaseyana (Buckley) C. H. Muller; Q. undulata Torrey var. vaseyana (Buckley) Rydberg

Quercus vaseyana (also called Vasey oak) is a species of tree in the beech family. It grows in northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo León) and in the US state of Texas.

Q. vaseyana is a shrub or small tree up to 10 metres (33 feet) tall. The bark is brown. The leaves are narrow, up to 9 centimetres (3+1⁄2 inches) long, thick and leathery, with a few teeth or shallow lobes.