Lithocarpus henryi

Lithocarpus henryi, the Henry tanoak, is an evergreen cousin of the oaks that few gardeners have met. Native to the mountain forests of central China, the tree carries long, narrow, pointed leaves of glossy deep green and builds, in time, a dense, rounded evergreen crown of fifteen to twenty-five feet. Among a genus of mostly tender species, this one ranks as the hardiest, which is what makes the Henry tanoak worth seeking out for milder temperate gardens.

The tanoaks belong to the beech and oak family, Fagaceae, and sit close to the true oaks without being of them. The genus name Lithocarpus means stone fruit, from the Greek for stone and fruit, a nod to the large, hard, woody acorns; unlike the nodding catkins of an oak, the flowers stand upright in stiff, chestnut-like spikes. The epithet henryi honors Augustine Henry, the Irish-born plant collector whose late nineteenth-century explorations opened much of the flora of central China to Western gardens.

In summer the tree hangs out creamy, upright catkins with the heavy scent of the chestnuts to which the family is kin, followed by large, hard acorns held in sparse racemes and cupped in woody scales. The new growth flushes handsomely before hardening to deep green, and the leathery leaves keep their polish through winter, giving the tree a substantial, year-round presence that few broadleaf evergreens of this hardiness can match.

Give the Henry tanoak a sunny to lightly shaded position and fertile, well-drained soil, and allow room for the crown to fill out as a specimen, an evergreen screen, or a distinctive shade tree for a collector's garden. Patience helps, since tanoaks settle in at a measured pace, but the reward is a rare and dignified evergreen that lends structure and quiet interest in every season. The acorns, in time, feed birds and small mammals, a bonus for a wildlife-minded garden.