Quercus franchetii, commonly known as the zhui lian li evergreen oak, is a species of oak in the Ilex section of the genus, native to a wide area of eastern Asia. It is an oak native to China (Sichuan and Yunnan), northern Thailand and Vietnam, growing at altitudes between NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet).
In nature, it forms an evergreen tree up to 15m (49feet) high. Sometimes it is shrubby. When older, it has irregular and tortuous branches. The branches are covered with a creamy white, long lasting tomentum. The buds are small, globular with pointed apex, reddish and white ciliated edge.
The leathery oval leaves measure NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) long by NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) wide, and are evergreen (remaining on the plant over winter). They have a cuneate (wedge-shaped) or slightly rounded base, and the upper surface is smooth and shiny, while the underside is densely covered with yellowish fur. The leaf margin is dentate, with 5 to 10 pairs of short teeth, though not near the base, and the leaf sits on a 1–2-cm long furry gray-yellow petiole. The fruit is an acorn which measures 0.9–1.1 cm in length by 0.8 cm across; ovoid, apex depressed but mucronate; silky; short peduncle (1.5–3 cm); enclosed two-thirds by cup; cup 0.8–1.1 cm in diameter, scaly; maturing in 1 or 2 years.
This species was described in 1899 and dedicated to Adrien René Franchet, a botanist at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Franchet had a few months earlier named and described this species as Q. lanuginosa,[1] but his name turned out to have been used before, so Skan renamed it as Q. franchetii.[2] It is in subgenus Cerris, section Ilex,[3] resembling Q. lanata.