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The "Fumoto-mizu-nara" (Quercus mongolicoides) belongs to belongs to Fagaceae (the Beech family). It is a tall deciduous tree that is distributed from the southern Tohoku region to the Chubu region in Honshu, Japan. It grows on mountains and hills and grows 10 to 15 m high. It was previously thought to be identical to the "Mongolian oak" (Quercus mongolica) native to northeastern China, Mongolia, and Russia, but the native species in Japan was named "Fumoto-mizu-nara" in 2006 as a separate species. Professor Hideaki Oba of the University of Tokyo named it as a subspecies of"Ko-nara" (Quercus serrata) and Professor Shunsuke Serizawa of Aichi University of Education named it as a variety of "Mizu-nara" (Quercus cuspidata). In addition, Professor Shozo Hiroki of Aichi University presented his opinion in 2008 that those distributed in the Tokai region are a hybrid between "Mongolian oak" and "Mizu-nara", and in 2017, they were positioned as an independent species (Quercus mongolicoides). It is also said to be a crossbreed between the "Mizu-nara" (Quercus cuspidata) and the "Japanese emperor oak" (Quercus dentata), but this has not been clearly identified.
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