NL·0073Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Quercus robur
- Family
- Fagaceae
- Native to
- Most of Europe to the Caucasus and northern Turkey
- Habitat
- Temperate broadleaf forest, Wood pasture, Hedgerows
English oak (Pedunculate oak)
Quercus robur
Also calledStieleiche (German) · Chêne pédonculé (French) · Roble común (Spanish) · Dąb szypułkowy (Polish) · Dub (Russian) · Dair (Irish)
A living city. A 2019 study found that English oak supports more than 2,300 species in Britain, including hundreds that live on nothing else. Individual trees can live for more than 1,000 years, and oak has been a sacred tree in Europe since before history.
Quercus robur, pedunculate oak, European oak, or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soils of near neutral acidity in the lowlands and is notable for its value to natural ecosystems, supporting a diversity of herbivorous insects, acorn eating mammals and birds, and fungi. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iSupports more invertebrates, lichens and fungi than any other native British tree
- iiMasts: produces huge acorn crops in some years and few in others, which outpaces seed-eaters
- iiiRelies on jays to plant acorns, sometimes kilometres away
- ivLives for more than 1,000 years, often hollowing out in old age and surviving as a shell
- vReacts to gall wasps by growing galls rich in tannin, used for iron-gall ink
At the table
Eatenacorns (after leaching)
Raw acorns are bitter with tannins and cause stomach upset; they must be leached repeatedly in water before being ground into flour. Acorns and leaves poison cattle and horses in quantity.
In the medicine cabinet
| Tradition | Use |
|---|---|
| European herbal medicine | Bark decoction as an astringent for diarrhoea, sore throats and skin inflammation |
| German Commission E | Oak bark approved for external use on inflamed skin and for acute diarrhoea |
Weight of evidence
Traditional. Long historical use; little or no modern clinical evidence.
Active compounds
ellagitannins, gallic acid, catechins
Fruit & seed
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Fruit
Nut (acorn)
Ripens: Autumn
Acorns held in scaly cups on long stalks (peduncles).
Seed
~2–3 cm
Acorn; seed must not dry out
- Dispersal
- Jays, squirrels and mice that bury and forget acorns
- Germination
- Sow fresh in autumn; root emerges the same winter, shoot in spring
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under open licences; hover for the photographer, click for the file.
How to grow it
Hardiness (USDA zones)
USDA 4–8. Survives winters down to about -34 °C.
- Light
- Full sun
- Water
- Moderate
- Soil
- Deep, fertile; tolerates clay
- Propagation
- Fresh acorns
- To harvest
- Acorns after 40–50 years
- Climates
- Temperate, Oceanic, Continental
- 1Collect acorns as they fall and float-test them (discard floaters)
- 2Sow at once in deep pots or straight into the ground
- 3Protect from mice and squirrels with mesh
- 4Plant out within 1–2 years before the taproot gets long
Can it grow where you are?
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Most of Europe to the Caucasus and northern Turkey
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1542 · p.263
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1549 · p.261
Six Groups of the History of Plants
Rembert Dodoens · 1583 · p.832
Six Groups of the History of Plants
Rembert Dodoens · 1583 · p.832
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.45
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.367
Garden of Health
1507 · p.297
De medicinali materia libri sex
Dioscorides · 1552 · p.155
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1560 · p.239
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1560 · p.242
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Quercus robur in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Pliny the Elder described Gaulish druids cutting mistletoe from oaks with a golden sickle, and Charles II hid in the 'Royal Oak' at Boscobel in 1651. Oak was the timber of the Royal Navy and of Europe's cathedrals.
Curiosity
Magna Carta, Leonardo's notebooks and Bach's manuscripts were written in iron-gall ink, made from tannin-rich oak galls and iron salts.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 56133.