Common Name: OAK FAMILY
Habit: Shrub, tree, evergreen or not; monoecious. Leaf: simple, alternate, petioled; margin entire to lobed; stipules small, generally deciduous. Staminate Inflorescence: catkin or stiff spike, many-flowered. Pistillate Inflorescence: 1--few-flowered, generally above staminate inflorescence; involucre bracts many, generally overlapping, flat or cylindric. Staminate Flower: calyx generally 4--6-lobed, minute; petals 0; stamens 4--12+. Pistillate Flower: calyx generally 6-lobed, minute; petals 0; ovary inferior, style branches generally 3. Fruit: 1 nut subtended, partly enclosed by scaly, cup-like involucre or 1--3 nuts subtended, enclosed by spiny, bur-like involucre; mature years 1--2. Seed: generally 1.
Genera In Family: 7 genera, +- 900 species: generally northern hemisphere. Note: Wood of Quercus critical for pre-20th century ship-building, charcoal for metallurgy; some now supply wood (Fagus, Quercus), cork (Quercus suber), food (Castanea, chestnut). Lithocarpus densiflorus moved to Notholithocarpus.
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Tucker, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: CHINQUAPIN
Habit: Evergreen. Leaf: leathery, adaxially +- glabrous, green, abaxially golden, with densely spaced, minute, appressed scales, margin entire or +- wavy above middle; stipules generally deciduous. Staminate Inflorescence: branched or not, stiff, clustered or not, ascending to erect. Pistillate Inflorescence: clustered below staminate on same or separate stalk, 1--3-flowered. Staminate Flower: sepals generally 6, minute; stamens generally 8--10+. Fruit: nuts 1--3, enclosed by spiny, bur-like involucre, ovoid to +- spheric, +- angled; mature year 2.
Etymology: (Greek: golden scale, from abaxial leaf)
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Tucker
Unabridged Reference: Hjelmqvist 1960 Bot Not 113:373--380