''Quercus afares'', the African oak, is a species of oak native to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. It has a very limited distribution in the coastal mountains of the eastern

Tell Atlas The Tell Atlas ( ar, الاطلس التلي, Latn, ar, al-ʾaṭlas al-tlī) is a mountain chain over in length, belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching mainly across northern Algeria, with ends in both north-eastern ...

in Algeria, and the Mogod- Kroumerie region of northwestern Tunisia. ''Quercus afares'' is

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

, with a corky bark (thinner than that of the

cork oak ''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the co ...

, ''Q. suber)'', and can reach 25–30 metres in height. It grows in dense stands, associated with cork oak at elevations as low as 200 metres, and with the semi-deciduous

Algerian oak ''Quercus canariensis'', the Algerian oak, Mirbeck's oak or zean oak, is an oak in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Mesobalanus'', native to southern Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Despite the scientific name, it does not oc ...

''(Q. canariensis)'' from 700 to 1600 metres elevation. ''Q. afares'' can also be found in monospecific stands, especially above 1200 metres on soils damaged by fire. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the eastern coastal portion of the

Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests is an ecoregion, in the temperate coniferous forest biome, which occupies the high mountain ranges of North Africa. The term is also a botanically recognized plant association in the African and Mediterrane ...

ecoregion.

Taxonomy

The relationship of ''Q. afares'' to other oaks was investigated in 2006. It was initially classified in ''Q.'' section ''Cerris'', because of morphological similarities with two other species, Turkey oak ''(

Quercus cerris ''Quercus cerris'', the Turkey oak or Austrian oak, is an oak native to south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is the type species of ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris'', a section of the genus characterised by shoot buds surrounded by soft bristles ...

)'' of southern Europe and chestnut-leaved oak ''( Quercus castaneifolia)'' of the Caucasus and northern Iran. A 2017 classification still places it in this section. A 2006 genetic analysis using both nuclear (allozymes) and chloroplastic markers found that ''Q. afares'' originated as a hybrid of ''Q. suber'' and ''Q. canariensis''. Although it is common for oaks of related species to hybridize, the parent species of ''Q. afares'' are from genetically distant sections of the genus, ''Q. suber'' from section '' Cerris'' and ''Q. canariensis'' from section '' Mesobalanus''. C. Mir ''et al.'' maintain that because ''Q. afares'' is genetically, morphologically and ecologically differentiated from its parental species, it should therefore be considered a stabilised hybrid species. Like ''Q. suber'', it has a biennial reproductive cycle, corky bark, and similar fruit, and also does not occur on limestone soils. Unlike ''Q. suber'', which is limited to coastal areas with mild winters, ''Q. afares'' shares the cold-tolerance of ''Q. canariensis'' which shares some of its mountain habitats.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q4117354 afares Flora of North Africa