Common Names: Silverleaf Oak, Silver Oak
Habitat: the mountains of southeastern Arizona; New Mexico, west Texas, and northern Mexico
Flowers: flowering in April and May; acorns are brown, 0.75 inches long; cap covers the top third of the acorn; acorns mature in 1 to 2 years
Description: a bush or small tree, but can grow up to 60 feet in height; leaves are evergreen, long and narrow, yellow-green to dark green on top, white and fuzzy underneath, with a smooth margin; bark is dark gray or black, plated, with fissures in between
Comments: a common first generation plant in burned areas; acorns are eaten by the thick-billed parrot

Also called whiteleaf oak.
Botanical synonym: Q. hypoleuca Engelm., not Miq.

Description Small to medium-sized evergreen tree to 30 feet to 65 feet in height and 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet in trunk diameter, with a rounded spreading crown, or sometimes a clump-forming shrub 6 feet tall. Leaves lance-shaped, 2 to 4 inches long and 1/2 to 1 inch wide, sharp-pointed, narrowed at base, edges rolled under and usually without teeth or with a few small spiny teeth, very thick and leathery, shiny yellow-green above, beneath densely white-woolly. Acorn 1/2 to 5/8 inch long, pointed, one-third enclosed in a thick cup hairy inside, maturing in 2 years. Bark deeply furrowed into ridges and plates, blackish. Wood hard, heavy, dark brown.

Distribution More or less common in mountain slopes and canyons of oak woodland, 5,000 to 7,000 feet elevation, in Mexican border region. New Mexico: mountains of southwestern part north to Black Range and Mogollón Mountains. Arizona : mountains of southeastern part west to Santa Cruz, Pima, and Graham Counties. Southwestern Texas to southeastern Arizona and in northern Mexico. Silverleaf oak with its leaves so distinct from those of most oaks should be suitable for cultivation as an ornamental tree.