It is widespread in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and known from a single population in the United States (about 30 kilometres or 19 miles north of the Río Grande in Val Verde County, Texas) but widely planted as an ornamental.

The leaves are elliptical or egg-shaped, up to 15 centimetres (6 inches) long, unlobed or with a few shallow rounded lobes.

[3] Quercus polymorpha ranges across eastern and southern Mexico, in the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre de Oaxaca ranges, the Chiapas Highlands of southeastern Mexico, and scattered locations on the Mexican Plateau, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and Sierra Madre Occidental.

It is found in the states of Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Michoacán, and Morelos.

There are scattered populations in the Guatemalan Highlands of central Guatemala, including Chiquimula, Huehuetenango, Jalapa, and Zacapa, and in western Honduras.