Quercus rugosa is an evergreen shrub or tree.[3] The bark is brown and scaly. The leaves are thick and leathery, rarely flat, usually cupped, up to 15 centimetres (6 inches) long, dark green on the top but covered with a thick of reddish-brown hairs on the underside.[4][5] The young leaves are also very hairy and usually red or yellow.
Name
Quercus rugosa is Latin for "wrinkled oak". In Spanish it has many common names, like "encino negro" (black oak) or "encino quiebra hacha" (axe-breaking oak). Colloquially it is known as "chaparro", a word which has also passed into the lexicon as slang for a short person.
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Quercus rugosa". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
^"Quercus rugosa". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.