''Quercus faginea'', the Portuguese oak, 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 ...

native to the western Mediterranean region in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. Similar trees in the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range, which stretches around through M ...

of northwest

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

are usually included in this species, or sometimes treated as a distinct species, ''Quercus tlemcenensis''. It occurs in mountains from sea level to above sea level, and flourishes in a variety of soils and climates. Out of all the oak forests in the Iberian Peninsula, the southern populations of Portuguese oak were found to have the highest diversity and

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

of spider species.

Description

''Q. faginea'' is a medium-sized

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 Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

or semi-evergreen

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

growing to tall, with a trunk up to in diameter, with grey-brown

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

. The tree can live as long as 600 years. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are long and 1.2–4 cm broad (rarely to 15 cm long and 5 cm broad), glossy dark green to gray-green above, and variably felted grey-white below; the margins have five to 12 pairs of irregular teeth. Leaf fall is typically in mid- to late winter. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are

catkin A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind- pollinated ( anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). It contains many, usually unisexual flowers, arra ...

s, produced between March and April, almost always before holm oak, which grows in similar areas. The

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

s are oblong-ovoid, 2–2.5 cm long, maturing in 6 months to disperse in September or October. The species commonly develops

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or war ...

s due to

gall wasp Gall wasps, also traditionally called gallflies, are hymenopterans of the family Cynipidae in the wasp superfamily Cynipoidea. Their common name comes from the galls they induce on plants for larval development. About 1,300 species of this gene ...

activity; the galls are brown, 1–2 cm diameter, and have a spongy, cork-like interior.CAB International (2005)
data on ''Quercus faginea'', Forestry Compendium
. Retrieved 27 July 2006. The two

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are: Portuguese oak also hybridises readily with other related oaks such as Algerian oak (''Q. canariensis'') and downy oak (''Q. pubescens''), which can make identification difficult. The specific name ''faginea'' refers to the superficial resemblance of the leaves to those of the

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

(''Fagus'').

Uses

The

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

has been used traditionally as firewood and as timber for construction (beams and posts). The acorns, like those of the holm oak or

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

, are an important food for free-range black Iberian pigs reared for ''

jamón ibérico Jamón ibérico (; Spanish for "Iberian Ham"), known in Portuguese as presunto ibérico (), is a variety of ''jamón'' or ''presunto'', a type of Curing (food preservation), cured leg of pork (primarily Black Iberian pigs) produced in Spain and P ...

'' production. It is also occasionally planted as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

Gallery

Quercus faginea Archidona.jpg, ''Quercus faginea'' in wintertime Quercus faginea e bugalho.JPG, ''Quercus faginea'' subsp. ''broteroi''

References

External links

Jean Louis Helardot, Chênes: ''Quercus faginea''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2432250 faginea Flora of North Africa Trees of Europe Trees of Mediterranean climate Drought-tolerant trees Plants described in 1785