Lithocarpus edulis 'Variegata' Check with George Photo courtesy of Bob Gutowski

Photo courtesy of Bob Gutowski

grown since antiquity for a long summer of bloom

and favors somewhat drier ground

on the same dependable

cupped stars of translucent pale yellow

Lithocarpus edulis 'Variegata' Check with George Photo courtesy of Bob GutowskiA broadleaf evergreen with a story, this variegated tanbark oak came into the country from Japan through the late Dr. Fred Meyer of the United States National Arboretum, a botanist and tireless plant explorer, and was almost certainly first offered to American gardeners by Woodlanders. The draw is the foliage: dense, leathery, glossy leaves, each dark green blade split by an irregular central streak of gold and cream, so that a whole tree seems lit