Quercus infectoria Oliv.

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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

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'Quercus infectoria' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-infectoria/). Accessed 2024-09-19.

Genus

Quercus

Infraspecifics

Q boissieri

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

acorn: Fruit of Quercus; a single-seeded nut set in a woody cupule.
apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
crenate: With rounded teeth at the edge.
dentate: With evenly triangular teeth at the edge. (Cf. crenate teeth rounded; serrate teeth saw-like.)
glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
obtuse: Blunt.
ovoid: Egg-shaped solid.
petiole: Leaf stalk.
sinuate: (of a flat leaf) With margins that wind strongly inwards and outwards.
subspecies: (subsp.) Taxonomic rank for a group of organisms showing the principal characters of a species but with significant definable morphological differentiation. A subspecies occurs in populations that can occupy a distinct geographical range or habitat.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Quercus infectoria' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/quercus/quercus-infectoria/). Accessed 2024-09-19.

Quercus infectoria in forest near Isparta, Turkey, which it co-dominates with Q. cerris. 20th March 2022. Image Tom Christian.

A deciduous or almost evergreen shrub or small tree up to about 20 ft high; buds ovoid, slightly downy; young stems soon glabrous. Leaves leathery, oblong to oblong-elliptic, 13⁄4 to 23⁄8 in. long, 5⁄8 to 2 in. wide, obtuse at the apex, glabrous on both sides except for a few scattered hairs beneath, main lateral veins in mostly five to seven pairs, intercalary veins present, margins dentate, crenate, or sinuate, the teeth usually mucronate; petiole 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long. Fruits more or less as in Q. faginea but scales of acorn-cups usually swollen.

Native of the N. Aegean and N.W. Anatolia, rare in cultivation. The galls produced by this oak are used in dyeing, whence the specific epithet, and also in medicine.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Q. boissieri – The correct name for this oak, considered as a subspecies of Q. infectoria, would be subsp. veneris (A. Kerner) Meikle, from Q. lusitanica subsp. veneris (A. Kerner) Holmboe (Q. veneris A. Kerner).

Q. boissieri has been reintroduced to Kew by seeds collected by Fliegner and Simmons in north-western Iran in 1977. The old tree at Kew, pl. 1870, measures 54 × 51⁄2 ft (1986).

Q. kelloggii

specimens: Kew, pl. 1873, 66 × 51⁄2 ft (1986); Tortworth, Glos., 80 × 91⁄4 ft (1973).

Quercus infectoria in forest near Isparta, Turkey. 20th March 2022. Image Tom Christian.

Q boissieri Reut. ex Boiss.

Synonyms
Q. infectoria subsp. boissieri (Boiss.) Gurke

Allied to Q. infectoria, but branchlets tomentose, at least when young; leaves larger, up to almost 5 in. long in some varieties, 1{1/4} to sometimes almost 3 in. wide, adult leaves rarely quite glabrous beneath and often persistently tomentose; lateral veins in seven to eleven pairs, fairly straight and parallel; intercalary veins rare except on leaves of the second flush; margins of leaves dentate, sometimes merely undulate, or occasionally quite entire; petiole up to almost 1 in. long.Q. boissieri is of wider distribution than Q. infectoria, from Cyprus and Anatolia to western Iran and the Caucasus, south to Palestine, and is often a quite tall, forest-forming tree. It is subdivided into varieties with a lengthy synonymy, but the species is so rare in cultivation that a detailed treatment is beyond the scope of this work. There is an example at Kew obtained from James Booth of Hamburg, planted in 1870, which measures 58 × 6{1/4} ft (1967).Some very striking variants of Q. boissieri occur in Cyprus, judging from the specimens in the Kew Herbarium.

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