Quercus fissa Champion ex Bentham, Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 6: 114. 1854; Castanopsis fissoides Chun & C. C. Huang ex Luong; C. tunkinensis (Drake) Barnett (1944), not C. tonkinensis Seemen (1897); Lithocarpus fissus (Champion ex Bentham) A. Camus; Pasania fissa (Champion ex Bentham) Oersted; Q. tunkinensis Drake; Shiia fissa (Champion ex Bentham) Kudo; Synaedrys fissa (Champion ex Bentham) Koidzumi.

Trees; bud scales, shoot apexes, and young leaf blades abaxially yellowish brown puberulent and covered with rust-colored, small, lamellate, slightly adnate, waxy scalelike trichomes. Branchlets red-purple, prominently angular. Leaves spirally arranged, yellowish brown to gray; petiole 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade oblong to obovate-elliptic, very variable in sizes, often 15-25 × 5-9 cm, thickly papery, base cuneate, margin from base to middle undulate and crenate, apex acute, acuminate, or rounded; midvein raised adaxially; secondary veins 20-28 on each side of midvein or rarely fewer. Infructescence 8-18 cm; rachis glabrous. Cupule 1-1.5 cm in diameter, irregularly 2- or 3(or 4)-valved with valves often curled, covered with dark reddish brown mealy waxy scalelike trichomes, apex slightly cuspidate, wall 0.5-1 mm thick; bracts scalelike, triangular to squarish, imbricate when young but mostly united and in ring ribs with age. Nut globose to elliptic, 1.3-1.8 × 1.1-1.6 cm, apically brown-red tomentose; scar basal, 4-7 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Oct-Dec.

Cupule shape of this species ranges from ellipsoid to ovoid and correlates with the distribution. Ellipsoid cupules occur in Fujian, E Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Hunan, while ovoid cupules occur in more western regions such as SE Yunnan and neighboring regions, including W Hainan and NE Vietnam.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; below 1600 m. S Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, Hainan, S Hunan, S Jiangxi, SE Yunnan [N Thailand, N Vietnam]