Quercus salicina ("Urajirogashi")

Japanese name: ウラジロガシ （裏白樫）
Scientific name: Quercus salicina

[Overview]
An evergreen tree up to 20 m tall with a trunk up to 80 cm across.
The bark has sparse round lenticels.
Young branches are at first densely covered with pale brown soft hairs, but later become hairless.
Leaves are simple and alternate, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 7–11 cm long, and hard.
The upper surface of the leaf is at first sparsely covered with soft hairs, but later becomes hairless and glossy.
The underside is at first densely covered with yellowish-brown silky hairs, but later becomes waxy and powdery white.
The margin of the upper two-thirds of the leaf has low, sharp teeth.
The petiole is 1–2 cm long.
The leaf shape is highly variable.
There are male flowers and female flowers.
The male flowers form catkins 5–7 cm long, densely covered with brown soft hairs, and hang down several at a time from the leaf axils at the base of the new branches.
The female inflorescences stand upright in the leaf axils at the top of the new branches and bear 3–4 female flowers.
The fruit is an ovoid to elliptic nut (acorn) 1.2–2 cm long, which ripens in autumn of the following year.
The cupule (acorn cap) is ring-shaped, usually with 7 rings.

[Uses]
The leaves and twigs are used as a folk remedy, and the wood is used for furniture and the like.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
The germination rate drops if acorns are dried, so sow them immediately after collecting, or keep them moist until spring.
It prefers sunny, well-drained, fertile soil.
Rainfall is sufficient for watering.
Apply organic fertilizer in winter.
Pests and diseases include powdery mildew and teppomushi (longhorn beetle larvae).

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