Evergreen tree to 20 m tall. Bark shed in large white, flaky scales. Young shoots densely grey hairy. Leaves 5-15 cm long, oblong to lanceolate and narrowly pointed, dark green above, white hairy below, toothed almost to the base; vein pairs 8-12. Leaf stalk mostly 0.5-1 cm long. Acorns 1(-3), short stalked, to 2.5 cm long half enclosed in cup, narrowly pointed.

Himalaya

Grows naturally in the Himalaya of Upper Burma at altitude about 1500-2500 m with Rhododendron arboreum. Q. variabilis Blume is rare in cultivation but grown for example in the Cotter Plots, Canberra; it is very similar but has leaves less densely white or yellow hairy below and bark that is brown to black.

The only cultivated oak with white, flaky bark. Similar to Q. castaneifolia but differing in being evergreen and with marginal leaf teeth at the base of the leaf few or absent.

VIC: Bright (cemetery); Camperdown (Camperdown Botanic Gardens, 2 trees); Daylesford (Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens ); Castlemaine (Castlemaine Botanical Gardens); Hamilton (Hamilton Botanic Gardens, about 15 m in 1980); Kyneton (Kyneton Botanic Gardens, 14 m tall in 1985); Mt Macedon ('Alton', old Taylor & Sangster Nursery site, about 31 m tall in 1989); Dandenongs ('Pirianda' 8 m tall in 1984). TAS: Hobart (Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens); Richmond (Fort St, police station).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Fagaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.