Identifying Oaks

You know it's an oak because: it has acorns; the alternate leaves are smoothly or jaggedly-lobed or evergreen, some of them with small spines (there are some rare exceptions); there are bud clusters at the shoot tips.

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The two native species are distinguished by medium-sized leaves with rounded lobes; slightly confusingly English Oak has nearly stalkless leaves and stalked acorns whereas Sessile Oak has stalked leaves and stalkless acorns.

Other species can be divided into three groups:

True evergreen oaks: most common of which is the naturalized Holm Oak with (mainly spineless) but holly-like leaves; there is also Cork Oak (Q.suber) and a number of much rarer species.

Oaks with rounded lobes: Turkey Oak is naturalized and common, with rather deeper and sharper lobes than the native oaks and distinctive whiskered buds. Its hybrid, the semi-evergreen Lucombe Oak (Q. x hispanica ‘Lucombeana’), is less severely lobed. Hungarian Oak is the most common of a number of species with larger leaves.

American oaks with jagged or whiskered lobes: Red Oak has the largest leaves; Pin Oak is also frequent with very deeply lobed leaves and lots of light branches; Scarlet Oak has similar leaves and is most frequently seen as the grafted ‘Splendens’.

 
 

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Copyright © 2007 Philip Brassett