E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Deciduous tree with heavy, craggy branches, up to 25 m tall but often small, shrubby and as short as 1 m in dry, rocky habitats; trunks up to 1 m wide; bark light grey with thick scaly ridges.

Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, blades oblong to egg-shaped in outline with 3-7 lobes per side, the lobes entire or 2-3 toothed, up to 12 cm long with stalks 1-2 cm long, the largest sinuses extending more than halfway to the midrib, bright shiny green and glabrous above, paler below with reddish to yellow hairs, turning yellowish-brown in the fall.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of tiny inconspicuous male and female flowers, these separate but on the same tree; female flowers clustered or single surrounded by a scaly cuplike involucre; male flowers numerous in catkins.

Fruits:
Acorns, 1-seeded, maturing in one season, unstalked, egg-shaped to nearly round, 2-3 cm long; cups shallow, bumpy, hairy within.