{{Short description|Species of oak tree}} {{Speciesbox | name = Chinese cork oak | image = Quercus Variabilis.jpg | image_caption = | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name = iucn>{{cite iucn |author=Carrero, C. |year=2019 |title=''Quercus variabilis'' |volume=2019 |article-number=e.T194243A2305772 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T194243A2305772.en |access-date=25 May 2023}}</ref> | genus = Quercus | display_parents = 2 | parent = Quercus sect. Cerris | species = variabilis | authority = Blume | synonyms_ref = <ref>{{ThePlantList |id=kew-175660 |taxon=Quercus variabilis |authority=Blume}}</ref> | synonyms = * ''Pasania variabilis'' <small>(Blume) Regel</small> * ''Quercus bungeana'' <small>F.B.Forbes</small> * ''Quercus chinensis'' <small>Bunge</small> * ''Quercus moulei'' <small>Hance</small> }}

'''''Quercus variabilis''''', the '''Chinese cork oak''', is a species of oak in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris'', native to a wide area of eastern Asia in southern, central, and eastern China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.<ref name=FoC/>

==Description== ''Quercus variabilis'' is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree growing to {{convert|25|-|30|m|abbr=off}} tall with a rather open crown, and thick corky bark with deep fissures and marked by sinuous ridges. The leaves are simple, acuminate, variable in size, {{convert|8|-|20|cm|abbr=off|frac=4}} long and {{convert|2|-|8|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} broad, with a serrated margin with each vein ending in a distinctive fine hair-like tooth; they are green above and silvery below with dense short pubescence.<ref name=FoC/>

The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins produced in mid spring, maturing about 18 months after pollination; the fruit is a globose acorn, {{convert|1.5|-|2|cm|abbr=on|frac=8}} diameter, two-thirds enclosed in the acorn cup, which is densely covered in soft {{convert|4|-|8|mm|frac=16}} long 'mossy' bristles.<ref name=FoC>{{eFloras|2|200006306|Quercus variabilis |first1=Chengjiu |last1=Huang |first2=Yongtian |last2=Zhang |first3=Bruce |last3=Bartholomew |volume=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/274 |last=Blume |first=Carl Ludwig von |date=1850 |title=Museum Botanicum |volume=1 |issue=19 |page=[https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48976529 297] |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.274 |language=Latin}}</ref> <gallery> Image:Chinese cork oak foliage and flower.jpg|Foliage and flowers Image:Chinese cork oak bark.jpg|Trunk and bark of Chinese cork oak Image:Quercus variabilis JPG1a.JPG|Chinese cork oak planted at Meise, Belgium </gallery>

==Distribution and habitat== The species can be found in evergreen and deciduous forests below {{convert|3000|m|abbr=on}}, in the Chinese provinces of Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, as well as in Japan and Korea.<ref name=FoC/>

==Uses== It is cultivated in China to a small extent for cork production, though its yield is lower than that of the related cork oak. It is also occasionally grown as an ornamental tree. For pharmaceutical grade production of ''Ganoderma lucidum'', known in China as 'the mushroom of immortality,' the dead wood logs of ''Q.&nbsp;variabilis'' are used.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Shilin Chen|author2= Jiang Xu|author3=Chang Liu|author4=Yingjie Zhu|author5=David R. Nelson|author6=Shiguo Zhou|author7=Chunfang Li|author8=Lizhi Wang|author9=Xu Guo|author10=Yongzhen Sun|author11=Hongmei Luo|author12=Ying Li|author13=Jingyuan Song|author14=Bernard Henrissat|author15=Anthony Levasseur|author16= Jun Qian|author17=Jianqin Li|author18=Xiang Luo|author19=Linchun Shi|author20= Liu He|display-authors= etal|year=2012|title=Genome sequence of the model medicinal mushroom ''Ganoderma lucidum.''|journal=Nature Communications|volume=3|page=913|number=913|doi=10.1038/ncomms1923|pmid=22735441|pmc=3621433|bibcode= 2012NatCo...3..913C}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons}} {{Wikispecies}} * [http://www.tropicos.org/Image/56753 line drawing, Flora of China Illustrations vol. 4, fig. 359, 2 ] * [http://www.tropicos.org/Image/83624 line drawing, Manual of Vascular Plants of the Lower Yangtze Valley China Illustration fig. 57 ]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q192608}}

variabilis Category:Trees of China Category:Trees of Japan Category:Trees of Korea Category:Trees of Taiwan Category:Ornamental trees Category:Plants described in 1850