''Quercus humboldtii'', commonly known as the Andean oak, Colombian oak or roble, is a species of oak found only in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and Panamá. It is named for Alexander von Humboldt.

Description

''Quercus humboldtii'' is an evergreen tree which grows to a height of and a diameter of , with buttresses of up to 1 m. Its

bark Bark may refer to: * 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) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

is reddish gray or gray and fissured, breaking into squares and flaking. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are simple, alternate and lanceolate, up to long, and clustered at the ends of the branches. The flowers are small, yellow, and unisexual, with a racemic inflorescence. Male flowers are numerous, with long-styled female flowers in a cupula. The fruit is a light brown, ovoid capsule, or

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

, with a leathery pericarp, in diameter and long, resting on a scaly cupule. Only one fruit per cupule is developed, and the inside of the acorn shell is woolly.

Distribution and habitat

It grows in the mountains with an altitudinal range from . It is found on all three Colombian Andean mountain ranges and some lowland inter-Andean regions.Muller, C. H. 1960. Flora of Panama, Part IV. Fascicle 2. Fagaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 47(2): 95–104
/ref> The tree grows in the Andean highlands where the mean annual temperature is 16−24 °C, and the mean annual rainfall . It can be found in moderately fertile and deep soils as well as in degraded soils, preferring shallow soils with a thick layer of humus. The acorns provide important food for wildlife; two parrots – the

rusty-faced parrot The rusty-faced parrot (''Hapalopsittaca amazonina'') is a Near Threatened species of bird in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela and possibly Ecuador.Remsen, J. V ...

and

Fuertes's parrot Fuertes's parrot (''Hapalopsittaca fuertesi''), also known as the indigo-winged parrot, is a parrot which has a highly restricted range on the west slope of the Central Andes of Colombia. It is classified by the IUCN as being critically endangere ...

– are endemic to the threatened montane ecosystems of the Colombian Andes and are particularly dependent on the Andean oak forests as a home.

References

humboldtii Trees of Central America Trees of northern South America Flora of Colombia Flora of Panama Plants described in 1809 Taxa named by Aimé Bonpland Flora of the Andes Flora of the northwestern Andean montane forests {{Quercus-stub