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 of Arizona – a famed sky island – where 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 specimen grows in the greenbelt south of 40 Peter Coutts Circle.