Quercus robur - Pedunculate Oak - English Oak

General Information Common Name  Pedunculate Oak, English Oak Scientific Name  Quercus robur Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  15-18 m (50-60 ft) Spread  15 -18 m (50 - 60 ft) Growth Rate  Fast Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Bronze Flower Color  Yellow Type  Tree Native  Europe, America

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. robur

Quercus robur - Pedunculate Oak - English Oak

Quercus robur common name is Pedunculate Oak but well known as English Oak. This is national tree of England, being associated with her ship-building and hence with her ‘wooden walls’. Its acorns (‘mast’) provided, with beech nuts, pannage for pigs, and its bark yielded tannin for leather. It has leaves on long stalks, with the acorn cups on long stalks whereas the Durmast Oak has long-stalked leaves and stalk-less acorn cups.

The twigs of Pedunculate Oak are grey-brown and carry light brown winter buds spirally set, with a cluster of them near the tip. The young shoots bear very little down, and the bud-scales are not downy. The leaves are often bronze to khaki 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 a short stalk, on either side of which the leaf usually forms two ear-like lobes called auricles.

Both sexes of flower appear on the same tree in spring. The pale green male catkins are slender, the much less conspicuous female flowers, of like color have appreciable stalks – hence the later cup which holds the acorn likewise has a stalk. Both the acorn and the cup are at first green, but become brown by autumn.

At first the bark is smooth and grayish-brown, later becoming rugged; giving a rough fissured grey trunk that is often buttressed and sometimes carries epitomic shoots. In some parts of the county the trunks have in part almost a dull pink to purplish sheen. The sapwood band is white, while the heartwood is rich golden brown, and has great strength and remarkable natural durability. The timber has a wide range of uses, from cleft or sawn fencing and gates to furniture and parts of buildings, also shipbuilding, and particularly Scottish fishing craft; the bark can be used for tanning leather. The tree has a typically widely trees up to about 10 feet retain their spent ones appear in the spring.

The ‘Oak-apple’ (illustrated) is formed by a minute gall wasp.

English Oak

Silviculturists might say that whereas oak has had a glorious past, its economic future is less certain because of its slow growth relative to conifers, yet trees of sixty years can attain 60- feet in height and 8 feet in girth. It is sometimes said of the oak that it is two hundred years growing, two hundred years standing still and two hundred years dying. The silviculturist would usually fell it between one hundred and two hundred years.

The Pedunculate Oak and the Sessile Oak (which it has largely replaced) have sometimes interbred and many Oak wood consist of intermediate forms. Though little attention is given to differentiating between the two timbers, records show that many woodmen have appreciated the difference. Both kinds of tree usually break bud in May, but there is a second period of growth in July or August, when the so-called Lammas shoots are produced.

Young Plant of English Oak

Pedunculate Oak Leaves

Pedunculate Oak Leaves in Fall

Flowers of English Oak

Pedunculate Oak : Flowers

Pedunculate Oak Acorn

Fruits of English Oak

English Oak Bark

English Oak Log

English Oak

English Oak