Oak
Quercus
Oak,Chêne,Oaks
Gallery
Description
Trees or shrubs, evergreen or winter-deciduous, sometimes rhizomatous. Terminal buds spheric to ovoid, terete or angled, all scales imbricate. Leaves: stipules deciduous and inconspicuous (except in Quercus sadleriana). Leaf blade lobed or unlobed, thin or leathery, margins entire, toothed, or awned-toothed, secondary veins either unbranched, ± parallel, extending to margin, or branching and anastomosing before reaching margin. Inflorescences unisexual, in axils of leaves or bud scales, usually clustered at base of new growth; staminate inflorescences lax, spicate; pistillate inflorescences usually stiff, with terminal cupule and sometimes 1-several sessile, lateral cupules. Staminate flowers: sepals connate; stamens (2-)6(-12), surrounding tuft of silky hairs (apparently a reduced pistillode). Pistillate flower 1 per cupule; sepals connate; carpels and styles 3(-6). Fruits: maturation annual or biennial; cup variously shaped (saucer- to cup- or bowl- to goblet-shaped), without indication of valves, covering base of nut (rarely whole nut), scaly, scales imbricate or reduced to tubercles, not or weakly reflexed, never hooked; nut 1 per cup, round in cross section, not winged. x = 12.
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Taxonomy
Order
Fagales
Family
Fagaceae
Genus
Quercus
Characteristics
Bloom Time
Spring
Plant Type
Edible, Poisonous, Tree
Lifespan
Woody
Flower
Pollen flowers in drooping, elongated clusters.
Fruit
Acorns vary in size and shape depending on the species.
How to Grow
Sunlight
Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day), Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Benefits
Attracts
Butterflies
Moths
Pollinators
Small Mammals
Songbirds