Description from Flora of China
Quercus grandifolia D. Don in Lambert, Descr. Pinus 2: 27. 1824; Lithocarpus spicatus (Smith) Rehder & E. H. Wilson; Q. spicata Smith (1814), not Humboldt & Bonpland (1806); Q. squamata Roxburgh.
Trees 10-15 m tall, glabrous except for inflorescences. Petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade obovate, oblanceolate, or sometimes oblong, 15-40 × 5-15 cm, leathery to rigidly papery, concolorous, base often oblique and ± auriculate, subrounded, or rarely cuneate, margin entire, apex acute; secondary veins 13-20 on each side of midvein, fusing near margin; tertiary veins abaxially conspicuous. Male inflorescences usually solitary, occasionally 3-many in a panicle; rachis tomentose with short hairs, rarely glabrescent. Female inflorescences terminal, usually in pairs, to 20 cm; rachis base 1-1.6 cm thick; cupules in clusters of 3-5, usually 1 or 2 developed. Cupule cupular, ca. 2.6 cm in diam., enclosing 1/3-2/3 of nut, wall to 4 mm near base and woody; basal bracts often connate into horizontal ridges, broadly ovate to broadly rhomboid, puberulent. Nut depressed globose, 1.5-2.2 × 2-2.6 cm, apex flat and ± concave or rarely rounded and pointed, wall 1.5-2 mm thick; scar 1.6-2 cm in diam., concave but center sometimes convex. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep of following year.
Records of Lithocarpus elegans (Blume) Hatusima ex Soepadmo from China are referable to L. grandifolius.
Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 600-1900 m. S to SW Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, N Laos, Nepal, NE Myanmar, Sikkim, N Thailand]