Quercus petraea – Sessile Oak – Durmast Oak

General Information Common Name  Sessile Oak, Durmast Oak Scientific Name  Quercus petraea Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  18 - 23 m (60 - 75 ft) Spread  8 -14 m (26 - 46 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Bronze Flower Color  Green Type  Tree Native  United States

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Hamamelididae Order/  Fagales Family  Fagaceae – Beech family Genus  Quercus L. – Oak Species  Q. petraea

Quercus petraea – Sessile Oak

Quercus petraea common name is Sessile Oak also known as Cornish oak or Durmast Oak. It is native to Europe. It is particularly differentiated from the Pedunculate Oak in having long-stalked leaves, stalk less acorn cups, straighter branches and a narrower crown. The sessile oak is a large Semi-Deciduous tree grows up to 20–40 m (66–131 ft) in height.

The leaves are 7–14 cm (2.8–5.5 in) long and 4–8 cm broad, evenly lobed with five to six lobes on each side, and a 1 cm petiole. The twigs are brown and carry brown winter buds spirally set, with a cluster of them near the tip. The young shoots bear hairy scales. The leaves are often bronze to khaki when opening when opening and later are sometimes tinged with red – especially the second growth in July. They have a wavy indented outline, vary in size and lobbing and have an appreciable stalk towards which the base of the leaf tapers gradually. Unlike the Pedunculate Oak, it does not have auricles. 

Both sexes of flowers appear on the same tree in Spring. The pale green male catkins are slender; the even less conspicuous female flowers, of like color are in twos and threes and have little or no stalks – hence the later cup which holds the acorn like-wise does not have a stalk. The fruit is an acorn 2–3 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, which matures in about six months. Both the acorn and the cup are at first green, but become brown by autumn.

The bark, trunk and wood characteristics are the same as those of the Pedunculate Oak but the tree has usually a better timber form, since it keeps a main trunk growing up through its crown of straight branches. Young trees up to about 10 feet retain their spent brown autumn leaves until the new green ones appear in the spring. The comments made in the last two paragraphs under Pedunculate Oak apply equally to the Sessile Oak.

Sessile Oak

Sessile Oak Young Plant

Sessile Oak Leaves

Sessile Oak Bronze color leaves

Sessile Oak Flowers

Blooms of Sessile Oak

Sessile Oak Acorns

Sessile Oak Fruits

Sessile Oak Acorns

Sessile Oak Bark

Sessile Oak Log

Sessile Oak Huge Log

Sessile Oak Forest

Sessile Oak