Quercus handeliana A. Camus; Q. ilex Linnaeus var. acrodonta (Seemen) Skan; Q. parvifolia Handel-Mazzetti (1925), not Bentham (1889) nor Small (1895).

Trees or sometimes shrubs, to 15 m tall, evergreen. Young branchlets densely yellowish gray shortly stellate tomentose. Petiole 3-5 mm, densely yellowish gray tomentose; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or narrowly obovate, 2-6 × 1-2.5 cm, abaxially densely yellowish gray stellate tomentose, base rounded to nearly cordate, margin with spiniform scattered teeth from middle to apex, apex shortly acuminate; secondary veins 7-11 on each side of midvein, densely pubescent; tertiary veins abaxially inconspicuous beneath indumentum. Female inflorescences axillary on branches toward apex of tree; rachis yellowish brown tomentose; cupules 2 or 3. Infructescence with 1 or 2 cupules; rachis ca. 5 mm, densely yellowish gray tomentose. Cupule cupular, 5-8 mm × 1-1.5 cm, enclosing ca. 1/2 of nut; bracts elliptic, ca. 1.5 mm, imbricate, crowded, grayish tomentose except for reddish apex. Nut narrowly ellipsoid, 8-10 × 5-8 mm, apex yellowish gray tomentose; scar ca. 2 mm in diam., slightly raised; stylopodium ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. May, fr. Sep-Oct.

* Valleys and mountains; 300-2300 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan