Quercus pubescensWilld. Pubescent Oak

Quercus pubescensWilld. - Pubescent Oak

Scientific Description:

Deciduous small tree to 10 m, round-topped; young shoots densely pubescent (sometimes glabrous); buds c. 5 mm, reddish-brown, pubescent. Leaves most variable but generally oblong-obovate, c. 4.5−8.5 × 2.5−5 cm, greyish-green above, brownish-grey beneath, asymmetrically subcordate or rounded, thick-textured, with 3−6 strongly undulate forwardly-pointing irregular acute lobes with ± revolute margins; primary veins 4−8, intercalary veins present; indumentum densely to thinly stellate-tomentose beneath, with many scattered minute stellate hairs above; petiole 5−10 mm. Peduncle absent. Cupule shallow, to 15 mm diam.; scales adpressed, lanceolate, pubescent, brownish-grey; acorn 2/3 exserted.

 

Fruiting time: September−October.

Habitat: Usually associated with Pinus nigra L., Quercus cerris L., Fagus L., Castanea Mill., Pyrus elaeagnifolia Pall., Cistus laurifolius L., Paliurus spina-christi P. Mill., in anthropogenic steppe or semi-steppe; rarely in macchie, nr s.l.−1700 m.

 

Reference:

Hedge IC & Yaltırık F (1982). Quercus pubescens Willd., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 7: 672.

Public Description:

Quercus pubescens, known as “pubescent oak”, is native to central and southern Europe and southwest Asia, from northern Spain east to the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is a deciduous small tree, grows up to 10 meter in length. The leaves are covered with dense hairs and it is an oak resistant to drought. The trunk is often crooked and it is rarely used except as firewood, sleepers on railway tracks or to provide coal. Oak galls (usually nests of different insect species on the leaves of the tree, causing cell deterioration to enlarge the larvae). Larvae live in these galls while they receive the food there, and when they complete their development they abandon their nests. These galls can be used as a source of tannin and dyestuff.

 

References:

Anonymous 1 (2015). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_pubescens, Accessed date: 29.11.2015.

Anonymous 2 (2015). http://www.internationaloaksociety.org/content/quercus-pubescens-willd, Accessed date: 29.11.2015.

Anonymous 3 (2015). http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Quercus+pubescens, Accessed date: 29.11.2015.

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.