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28-469: Quercus cerris , the Turkey oak or Austrian oak , is an oak native to south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor . It is the type species of Quercus sect. Cerris , a section of the genus characterised by shoot buds surrounded by soft bristles, bristle-tipped leaf lobes, and acorns that usually mature in 18 months. Quercus cerris is a large deciduous tree growing to 25–40 metres (82–131 feet) tall with

56-621: A narrow belt along the Himalayas to cover mainland and island Southeast Asia as far as Sumatra , Java , Borneo , and Palawan . Finally, oaks of multiple sections ( Cyclobalanopsis , Ilex , Cerris , Quercus and related genera like Lithocarpus and Castanopsis ) extend across east Asia including China, Korea, and Japan. Potential records of Quercus have been reported from Late Cretaceous deposits in North America and East Asia. These are not considered definitive, as macrofossils older than

84-508: A single oak tree produces both staminate ('male') flowers in the form of catkins , and small pistillate ('female') flowers, meaning that the trees are monoecious . The fruit is a nut called an acorn , borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule ; each acorn usually contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on the species. The acorns and leaves contain tannic acid , which helps to guard against fungi and insects. There are some 500 extant species of oaks. Trees in

112-546: A small area of the west of Cuba ; in Mesoamerica it occurs mainly above 1000 metres. The genus crossed the isthmus of Panama when the northern and southern continents came together and is present as one species, Q. humboldtii , above 1000 metres in Colombia. The oaks of North America are of many sections ( Protobalanus , Lobatae , Ponticae , Quercus , and Virentes ) along with related genera such as Notholithocarpus . In

140-566: A trunk up to 2 m ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  ft) in diameter. The bark is dark gray and deeply furrowed. On mature trees, the bark fissures are often streaked orange near the base of the trunk. The glossy leaves are 7–14 centimetres ( 2 + 3 ⁄ 4 – 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches) long and 3–5 cm wide, with 6–12 triangular lobes on each side; the regularity of the lobing varies greatly, with some trees having very regular lobes, others much less regular. The flowers are wind-pollinated catkins , maturing about 18 months after pollination;

168-713: Is also the origin of the name " fir ", another important or sacred tree in Indo-European culture. The word "cork", for the bark of the cork oak , similarly derives from Quercus . The common name "oak" is from Old English ac (seen in placenames such as Acton , from ac + tun , "oak village" ), which in turn is from Proto-Germanic *aiks , "oak". Oaks are hardwood ( dicotyledonous ) trees, deciduous or evergreen, with spirally arranged leaves , often with lobate margins ; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with smooth margins. Many deciduous species are marcescent , not dropping dead leaves until spring. In spring,

196-515: Is strong and hard, and has found many uses in construction and furniture-making. The bark was traditionally used for tanning leather . Wine barrels are made of oak; these are used for aging alcoholic beverages such as sherry and whisky , giving them a range of flavours, colours, and aromas. The spongy bark of the cork oak is used to make traditional wine bottle corks. Almost a third of oak species are threatened with extinction due to climate change, invasive pests , and habitat loss . In culture,

224-498: Is widely planted and is naturalised in much of Europe. This is partly for its relatively fast growth. It is used as an ornamental, and as a coastal windbreak . Several cultivars have been selected, including 'Variegata', a variegated cultivar, and 'Woden', with large, deeply lobed leaves. Turkey oak readily hybridises with cork oak ( Q. suber ), the resulting hybrid being named Q. × crenata Lam. This hybrid occurs both naturally where its parents' ranges overlap in

252-622: The Paleogene , and possibly from before the Eocene are mostly poorly preserved without critical features for certain identification. Amongst the oldest unequivocal records of Quercus are pollen from Austria, dating to the Paleocene -Eocene boundary, around 55 million years ago. The oldest records of Quercus in North America are from Oregon , dating to the Middle Eocene, around 44 million years ago, with

280-559: The beech family . They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn , borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; it includes some 500 species, both deciduous and evergreen . Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene . Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades , but many oak species hybridise freely, making

308-523: The fruit is a large acorn , 2.5–4 cm (1– 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) long and 2 cm broad, bicoloured with an orange basal half grading to a green-brown tip; the acorn cup is 2 cm deep, densely covered in soft 'mossy' bristles from 4–8 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8 – 3 ⁄ 8  in) in length. First year acorns are very bitter, but are eaten by jays and pigeons ; squirrels usually only eat them when other food sources have run out. The species' range extended to northern Europe and

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336-709: The Arboretum in Slovakia , home of the late Count Ambrozy; 'Diversifolia', with the leaves extremely deeply cut leaving a narrow strip down the centre, and very corky bark; 'Fulhamensis' (Fulham oak), raised at Osborne's nursery in Fulham c.1760; and 'Lucombeana' (Lucombe oak), raised by William Lucombe at his nursery in Exeter c. 1762. An early specimen raised by Lucombe is at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . A similar Lucombe oak

364-605: The British Isles before the previous ice age, about 120,000 years ago. It was reintroduced in the UK and Ireland in the eighteenth century as an ornamental tree, its gall wasps now provide early food for birds. The tree harbours the gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis whose larvae seriously damage the acorns of native British oaks. In 1998, the Ministry of Defence ordered the felling of all Turkey oaks on its United Kingdom bases. Turkey oak

392-639: The Old World, oaks of section Quercus extend across the whole of Europe including European Russia apart from the far north, and north Africa (north of the Sahara) from Morocco to Libya. In Mediterranean Europe, they are joined by oaks of the sections Cerris and Ilex , which extend across Turkey, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan , while section Ponticae is endemic to the western Caucasus in Turkey and Georgia . Oaks of section Cyclobalanopsis extend in

420-513: The West Indies (Cuba), and Central America. A 2017 classification included seven species: Species are native to Europe, north Africa and Asia. Styles long; acorns mature in 18 months, very bitter, inside of acorn shell hairless or slightly hairy. Species in section Ilex are native to Eurasia and northern Africa . Styles medium-long; acorns mature in 12–24 months, appearing hairy on the inside. Evergreen leaves, with bristle-like extensions on

448-495: The acorns mature annually. The intermediate oaks . Southwest USA and northwest Mexico. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months, very bitter, inside of acorn shell woolly. The red oaks (synonym sect. Erythrobalanus ), native to North, Central and South America. Styles long, acorns mature in 18 months (in most species), very bitter, inside of acorn shell woolly. Section Virentes has also been treated at lower ranks. Species are native south-eastern Northern America, Mexico,

476-404: The genus Quercus consisted of Old World and New World clades. The entire genome of Quercus robur (the pedunculate oak) has been sequenced , revealing an array of mutations that may underlie the evolution of longevity and disease resistance in oaks. In addition, hundreds of oak species have been compared (at RAD-seq loci), allowing a detailed phylogeny to be constructed. However,

504-625: The genus are often large and slow-growing; Q. alba can reach an age of 600 years, a diameter of 13 feet (4.0 m) and a height of 145 feet (44 m). The Granit oak in Bulgaria, a Q. robur specimen, has an estimated age of 1637 years, making it the oldest oak in Europe. The Wi'aaSal tree, a live oak in the reservation of the Pechanga Band of Indians , California, is at least 1000 years old, and might be as much as 2000 years old, which would make it

532-551: The genus's history difficult to resolve. Ecologically, oaks are keystone species in habitats from Mediterranean semi-desert to subtropical rainforest . They live in association with many kinds of fungi including truffles . Oaks support more than 950 species of caterpillar , many kinds of gall wasp which form distinctive galls , roundish woody lumps such as the oak apple , and a large number of pests and diseases. Oak leaves and acorns contain enough tannin to be toxic to cattle, but pigs are able to digest them safely. Oak timber

560-1140: The high signal of introgressive hybridization (the transfer of genetic material by repeated backcrossing with hybrid offspring) in the genus has made it difficult to resolve an unambiguous, unitary history of oaks. The phylogeny from Hipp et al. 2019 is: CTB lineage [REDACTED] Cyclobalanoides Glauca [REDACTED] Acuta [REDACTED] Semiserrata East Asian Cerris [REDACTED] West Eurasian Cerris [REDACTED] Early-diverging Ilex [REDACTED] East Asian Ilex [REDACTED] Himalaya-Mediterranean [REDACTED] Himalayan subalpine [REDACTED] Agrifoliae [REDACTED] Palustres [REDACTED] Coccineae (Rubrae) [REDACTED] Phellos (Laurifoliae) [REDACTED] Texas red oaks [REDACTED] Erythromexicana [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Dumosae [REDACTED] Prinoids [REDACTED] Albae [REDACTED] Roburoids [REDACTED] Stellatae [REDACTED] Texas white oaks [REDACTED] Leucomexicana [REDACTED] List of Quercus species Unless otherwise indicated,

588-566: The largest number of oak species, with approximately 160 species in Mexico, of which 109 are endemic, and about 90 in the United States. The second greatest area of oak diversity is China, with approximately 100 species. In the Americas, Quercus is widespread from Vancouver and Nova Scotia in the south of Canada, south to Mexico and across the whole of the eastern United States. It is present in

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616-555: The lists which follow contain all the species accepted by Plants of the World Online as of February 2023 , plus selected hybrids that are also accepted, with placement into sections based on a list produced by Denk et al. for their 2017 classification of the genus. Species with evergreen foliage (" live oaks ") are tagged '#'. Species in the genus have been recategorized between deciduous and evergreen on numerous occasions, although this does not necessarily mean that species in

644-720: The oak tree is a symbol of strength and serves as the national tree of many countries. In Indo-European and related religions, the oak is associated with thunder gods . Individual oak trees of cultural significance include the Royal Oak in Britain, the Charter Oak in the United States, and the Guernica Oak in the Basque Country . The generic name Quercus is Latin for "oak", derived from Proto-Indo-European *kwerkwu- , "oak", which

672-547: The oldest oak in the US. Among the smallest oaks is Q. acuta , the Japanese evergreen oak. It forms a bush or small tree to a height of some 30 feet (9.1 m). The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas , Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America has

700-855: The oldest records in Asia from the Middle Eocene of Japan; both forms have affinities to the Cyclobalanopsis group. Quercus forms part, or rather two parts, of the Quercoideae subfamily of the Fagaceae , the beech family. Modern molecular phylogenetics suggests the following relationships: Fagus (beeches) Trigonobalanus (3 evergreen species) Lithocarpus (stone oaks) Chrysolepis (chinquapins) Quercus pro parte Notholithocarpus (tan oak) Quercus pro parte Castanopsis (also called chinquapins) Castanea (chestnuts) Molecular techniques for phylogenetic analysis show that

728-503: The two groups are closely related. Section Mesobalanus was included in section Quercus in the 2017 classification used here. Other synonyms include Q. sect. Albae and Q. sect. Macrocarpae . The section comprises the white oaks from Europe, Asia, north Africa, Central and North America. Styles short; acorns mature in 6 months, sweet or slightly bitter, inside of acorn shell hairless. Species are native to Western Asia and Western North America. They produce catkins up to 10cm long;

756-416: The wild, and has also arisen in cultivation. It is a very variable medium to large tree, usually semi-evergreen, sometimes nearly completely so, and often with marked hybrid vigour ; its bark is thick and fissured but never as thick as that of the cork oak. Numerous cultivars are available, often grafted onto Turkey oak root stock. These include 'Ambrozyana', evergreen except in severe winters, originating from

784-477: Was felled by fungus and a light wind in Phear Park, Exmouth 15 February 2009. The wood has many of the characteristics of other oaks, but is very prone to crack and split and hence is relegated to such uses as fencing. [REDACTED] Media related to Quercus cerris at Wikimedia Commons Oak See also List of Quercus species . An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of

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