[4] The sandpaper oak can be a small tree of up to 12 metres (39 feet) high or a large shrub that forms thickets.

It is their rough texture, caused by minute persistent hair bases, that gives the tree its name of sandpaper oak.

The acorns grow singly or in pairs and are light brown, broadly ovoid with a rounded apex.

[3][5] Sandpaper and Vasey shin oaks are abundant in the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.

Other plants associated with it include the Mohr shin oak (Quercus mohriana), oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), cane cholla (Opuntia imbricata), purplefruited pricklypear (Opuntia phaeacantha), Mexican buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa), Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana), hairy tridens (Erioneuron pilosum) and plateau oak (Quercus fusiformis).