• Scientific Name: Quercus variabilis Blume
• Ref: Mus. Bot. 1: 297. 1850.
• Synonyms: Quercus bungeana F. B. Forbes; Q. chinensis Bunge (1833), not Abel (1818); Q. variabilis var. megaphylla T. B. Chao; Q. variabilis var. pyramidalis T. B. Chao & al.
• Chinese Common Name: 栓皮栎 shuānpílì
• Japanese Common Name: アベマキ [棈] abemaki
• Family: Fagaceae
• Genus: Quercus
• Distribution: Evergreen and deciduous forests; below 3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea]
• Photo: 08/31/2013

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. (Flora of China)