1256 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Distribution 



The Turkey oak is a native of southern Europe, Asia Minor, and northern 

 Syria. It occurs in central and northern Spain. In Italy it grows in the Apennines 

 mixed with the common oak, occasionally descending into the region of the olive 

 and ascending into that of the beech, reaching its most southerly points in Calabria 

 and Sicily. In France it is a rare and doubtfully wild tree in the Jura, in Vienne, 

 Brittany, Anjou, and in Provence near Grasse ; but in the department of Doubs it 

 is very abundant in some of the oak forests, notably that of St. Vit, where it is the 

 dominant tree over an area of 250 acres. It is unknown in the Swiss and French 

 Alps, and in the Tyrol ; but is scattered as an isolated and rare tree throughout 

 Croatia, Dalmatia, Istria, Carniola, Styria, and Austria, reaching its northern limit 

 at St. Polten, west of Vienna, and the Polauer mountain in Moravia. 



It becomes much more abundant in Hungary, where it is common in the hilly 

 land and on mountain slopes, extending eastward through Banat to Transylvania. 

 It is perhaps the commonest broad-leaved tree in many parts of the Balkan states, 

 where it either forms pure woods at the higher elevations, or occurs on the lower 

 hills in mixture with Q. conferta and Q. sessiliflora. In these regions its wood is 

 never exported, and is little used except for firewood. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



It is uncertain when this tree was first introduced, for though mentioned by 

 Evelyn, it seems doubtful whether he really knew the tree, as he says, " we shall say 

 little of the Cerris or jfcgilops, goodly to look on, but for little else." In Miller's 1 

 time, however, about 1 740, it was in cultivation ; and in the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century was largely planted in the south and south-west of England. 



Though it is perfectly hardy, and according to Mouillefert, 2 endured at Grignon 

 in the winter of 1879-80 a temperature of 26 Cent., which injured many of the 

 common oaks, it only attains its best dimensions in the warmer parts of England on 

 deep and fertile soils. It endures lime, but prefers a warm sandy soil. It has a long 

 tap root with few fibres, and, as Loudon remarks, is therefore not easy to transplant. 

 When sown in the open the young immature shoots are often injured by frost, and 

 require some protection during the first winter. 



This tree grows faster than the common oak on dry sandy soils, and in conse- 

 quence has been planted in the southern counties more commonly than it deserves 

 to be ; for though it is a handsome ornamental tree, yet its timber is so inferior to 

 that of the pedunculate and sessile oaks that it has little market value, as many 

 landowners have found to their loss when the tree is felled. It ripens seed freely 

 in most seasons, and the seedlings, though not so hardy as those of the common oak, 



1 Miller mentions a large tree growing at Ragnal, near Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, which was supposed by Loudon 

 to be a form of the Turkey oak. 



1 Essences Forestiires, 93 (1903). 



