Japanese name: ナラガシワ（楢柏） Scientific name:Quercus aliena
[Overview]
A deciduous tree up to 25 m tall with a trunk up to 90 cm in diameter.
It is found in hills to mountains and is common in western Japan.
The bark is blackish gray-brown and splits deeply and irregularly.
Young twigs are pale green and at first have short hairs.
Leaves are simple and alternate, obovate-oblong, 12–30 cm long.
The underside of the leaf is at first densely covered with stellate hairs, but later only sparse hairs remain on the veins, and it becomes grayish white.
The leaf margin has wavy teeth.
The leaf stalk is 1–3 cm long.
There are male flowers and female flowers.
The male flowers form catkins 5–7 cm long, densely covered with white hairs, and hang in large numbers from the lower part of the new shoots.
The female flowers are borne several at a time in the leaf axils in the upper part of the new shoots.
The fruit is an elliptic nut (acorn) about 2 cm long that ripens in autumn of the same year; the cupule (acorn cap) is bowl-shaped, and the involucral scales are arranged like overlapping roof tiles.
