Quercus hypoleucoides silverleaf oak

An attractive evergreen oak with narrow, unlobed leaves whose dazzling white undersides recall those of the olive (the species name means “white beneath”). The margins roll under slightly and may show an occasional tooth. New growth flushes a luscious pink. I first encountered it at 6,500 feet in the Chiricahua Mountains, one of Arizona’s famed sky islands, whose isolated mountain ranges rise from desert. There it grew as a large shrub, its leaves held almost upright like long, silvery flames.

As a curbside street tree at 10596 North Tantau Avenue in Cupertino, it thrives; on campus, a single tree grows in the greenbelt south of 40 Peter Coutts Circle. In Menlo Park, a specimen stands between 2411 and 2417 Sharon Oaks Drive.