Description: Tree with straight bole, branches radiating, with domed crown, more open in leaf than Q. robur as leaves evenly spread, not bunched.

Height: 25-40m

Diameter: 1-3m

Leaves: Cuneate or subcordate base to a 1-2cm long yellow petiole narrow-elliptic acute; 8-12cm long, 4-5cm wide (rarely up to 18 x 12cm); 5-9 pairs of rounded lobes; dark green; rather thick, leathery or hard, very flat, healthy.

Bark: Grey, finely fissured and ridged, predominantly vertically.

Twigs: Shoot dark grey, partly purplish and bloomed grey. Bud large, ovoid, many-scaled; each pale orange-brown, tipped dark brown; finely white, long-pubescent.

Flowers: Male catkins 5-8cm. Female flowers terminal and in terminal axils on new shoot; 2-6, whitish, globular, 1mm; stigmas red-purple, late May.

Acorns: 1-2cm long; groups of 2-6 sessile or sub-sessile on 5-10mm peduncle.

Habitat: Light soils and hillside woods, often sparingly mixed with Q. robur in south, dominant oak in north and west.

Range: British native, particularly to north and west of Q. robur, also central-southern europe, where it range is notable in not extending as far east as Q. robur.

Information: Mitchell (1978)

Source: Weasdale Nurseries, Newbiggin-on-Lune, Cumbria. Acorns from Borrowdale, collected when already germinating at the end of December 1997, and potted January 1998.

Purchased: 1993.03.22, by us, one specimen at 4-5 feet.

Planted: 1993.04.03, European Strip, south end, E61E. First of the acorn seedlings 2004-10-08 at E49A.

Progress: the orignal (E61E) tree is doing almost as well as the English Oak (Quercus robur) a few metres away, and was 3.25 m high on 1998.10.07.

There is also a well-established tree on our southern boundary at D60D, which has been badly damaged by a horse eating a large area of bark. Rot has set in, some upper branches have died back, and eventually this tree will become hollow, though undoubtedly still valuable for wildlife (indeed, we believe owls nested in it in 2000 and 2004 at least). A seedling, presumably from this same tree, has established itself right at the base of the old tree, and will no doubt replace it in time. Meanwhile, in a fork some 2m above the ground, a rowan seedling is growing, rooting into the decaying trunk of the oak, and itself almost 2m high.

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