Wednesday, April 30, 2014

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 GreenBronze
Flower Color Green
Type Tree
Native United States
Classification
Kingdom Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
SuperdivisionSpermatophyta – 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


1 comment:

bazza said...

Hi. I have been trying to teach my self about trees for a couple of years so I am delighted to discover your Blog! I live just outside of London, UK but there is a huge overlap in the flora of Europe and the US. Great Blog!
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s fabulous Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

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