Quercus pubescens Willd.

A medium-sized deciduous tree, rarely exceeding 70 ft in the wild state, with a rather open crown, sometimes a shrub; bark more deeply furrowed than in the common oak, the ridges on old trees broken into segments by transverse furrowing; winter-buds and first-year stems covered with soft, grey hairs. Leaves mostly 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, about half as wide, obovate or narrowly so, obtuse at the apex, cuneate or slightly heart-shaped at the base, with usually four to eight rounded or pointed lobes on either side, upper surface at first covered with grey down, most or all of which falls away by the end of the summer, lower surface permanently and usually very thickly covered with down; stalk 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. long. Fruits either very shortly stalked or stalkless, solitary or as many as four together, each acorn about half enclosed in the cup, which is covered with very numerous closely appressed downy scales.

This species has a wide range from W. France and N. Spain through Central Europe and the Balkans to the Caucasus. It is a warmth- and light-loving species, found, in favourable climatic conditions, on both siliceous and limestone soils, but usually only on limestone at the northern extremities of its range. The true species is very rare in cultivation and of no importance as an ornamental. Its chief claim to attention is that in south-eastern Europe and parts of southern Central Europe it is the dominant tree in associations that contain so many of the most interesting of European small trees and shrubs, e.g., Ostrya carpinifolia, Carpinus orientalis, Prunus mahaleb, Fraxinus ornus, Cornus mas, etc. Owing to the felling of the oak canopy this association now mostly takes the form of deciduous brushwood (shiblyak).

There are three examples of Q. pubescens at Kew, the largest measuring 68 × 9 ft (1965).

subsp. palensis (Palassou) Schwarz Q. palensis Palassou. – Leaves less than 23⁄4 in. long, less lobed than in typical Q. pubescens. Scales at the base of the cup convex, united, those at the top longer, free, with cuspidate tips. Pyrenees and N. Spain.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, largest of three, 62 × 73⁄4 ft (1981); Ickworth, Suffolk, 95 × 123⁄4 ft, a superb tree (1984); Colesbourne, Glos., 88 × 8 ft (1984); Melbury, Dorset, 88 × 101⁄2 ft (1980); Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 59 × 7 ft (1985); Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, Eire, 62 × 91⁄2 ft at 2 ft (1985).