QUERCUS L.OAK

QUERCUS L. - OAK

Scientific Description:

Deciduous or evergreen trees, rarely shrubs; buds spirally arranged, with im­bricate scales, clustered at shoot apices. Leaves subsessile or petiolate, penni-­nerved, serrate, dentate, pinnatifid or lobed, lobes rounded without bristles at their tips or sharply pointed with aristate tips, rarely entire. Staminate flowers in long slender pendulous catkins; calyx (4−)6(−7)-partite; stamens (4−)6(−12). Pistillate flowers solitary or 2 to several on a very short to fairly elongate peduncle; ovary 3(−4)-celled. Fruit a nut (acorn), subglobose to oblong or cylindrical, surrounded at base or sometimes nearly enclosed by cup-shaped cupule covered outside with numerous imbricate scales (in Turkish species); pericarp thin or thick, endocarp glabrous or pubescent; acorn maturing in one season or two years, sweet or bitter to taste.

Reference:

Hedge IC & Yaltırık F (1982). Quercus L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 7: 659.

Public Description:

Quercus is a genus of deciduos or evergreen trees or shrubs known as “oak” or “oak tree” and has widely distribution on the world. There are approximately 597 species in the world and 24 species (31 taxa) in Türkiye. Because the density of oak wood is high, it is strong and hard. Due to its high tannin content, it is also very resistant to attack by insects and fungi. For this reason it is widely used for the production of furniture, flooring, wooden frame buildings and various coating materials. Cork plugs attached to the mouths of glass bottles are obtained from the bark of “cork oak (Quercus suber L.)”.

References:

Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak/, Accessed date: 22.01.2016.

Anonymous 2 (2016). http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/search?q=quercus/, Accessed date: 22.01.2016.

Güner A (2012). Quercus L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 506–511.