''Quercus congesta'' is a species of
oak
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
endemic to southern Italy, including
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
, and the southern Italian mainland.
[
]
Description
''Quercus congesta'' is a large tree, growing up to 20 metres tall.[
]
Range and habitat
''Quercus congesta'' is endemic to Italy, where it is found on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and in Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
on the southern Italian mainland. The species' estimated extent of occurrence
Extent may refer to:
Computing
* Extent (file systems), a contiguous region of computer storage medium reserved for a file
* Extent File System, a discontinued file system implementation named after the contiguous region
* Extent, a chunk of st ...
(EOO) is over 140,000 km2. It common in Sicily and Sardinia, and less common in Calabria.[
''Quercus congesta'' typically grows in mixed acidophilic forests.][
]
Conservation
The species is common, and its population is not declining. It faces potential threats from fire, deforestation, livestock grazing, and land development. Its conservation status is assessed as Least Concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from= Q15337826
congesta
Endemic flora of Italy
Flora of Sardinia
Flora of Sicily
Plants described in 1822
Taxa named by Carl Borivoj Presl