72 
QUERCUS 
Trees, shrubs, or undershrubs. Leaves evergreen or deciduous, often more or less deeply 
lobed. Catkins appearing with the leaves, simple. Staminate catkins lax-flowered, pendulous, 
elongate, peduncled. Pistillate catkins peduncled or sessile. Flowers wind-pollinated, protogynous. 
Perianth with 4 — 9, usually 5 segments. Stamens usually as many as the perianth-segments, and 
opposite them. Carpels 3 — 5, usually 3. Stigmas as many as the carpels, stouter than in Fagus 
or Castanea. Fruiting involucre (or “ cupule ”) terete, not spiny, surrounding the base of a 
single nut. Nut (or “ acorn ”) terete, exserted. Cotyledons smooth ; of the seedling, hypogeal. 
Of the species of Quercus, the evergreen ones are, in general, more primitive than the deciduous ones ; and of 
the deciduous species, the more hairy ones are more primitive than the glabrous ones (e.g., Q. robur). Glabrous-leaved 
species have arisen independently in several sections of the genus. 
About 200 species; Europe, Asia, I ndo- Malaysia, Pacific coasts, northern Africa, North America. 
All the British species belong to the section Lepidobalanos (Endlicher Gen. PI. Suppl. iv, 24 (1847) part.; Prantl in 
Engler und Prantl Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. i, 57 (1894). 
Subsections of Lepidobalanos 
Subsection 1. # Suber (see below). Leaves evergreen, densely tomentose underneath. Fruit 
ripening in a single summer. Fruiting involucre or cupule with appressed or erect scales. 
Subsection 2. # Aegilops (see below). Leaves deciduous, hairy underneath. Fruit taking two 
summers to ripen. Fruiting involucre with long, linear, reflexed scales. 
Subsection 3. Robur (p. 73). Leaves deciduous, hairy or glabrous underneath. Fruit ripening 
in a single summer. Fruiting involucre more or less pubescent or glabrous, with imbricate scales. 
Subsection 1. * SUPER 
Suber Reichenbach Ft. Germ. Excurs. 176 (1831) partim ; Ilex Loudon Arboret. iii, 1899 (1838); Endlicher 
Gen. PI. Suppl. iv, 25 (1847). 
For characters, see above. Only British species: — *Q. ilex. 
I. *QUERCUS ILEX. Evergreen Oak. Plate 71 
Ilex glandif era Gerard Herball 1161 ( 1 597 )- 
Quercus ilex L. Sp. PI. 995 (1753)!; Rouy FI. France xii, 320 (1910); Ascherson und Graebner Syn- 
iv, 470 (1911). 
leones: — Reichenbach Icon. t. 642, fig. 1307; Watson Dendr. Brit. t. 90. 
Camb. Brit. FI. ii. Plate 7/. (a) Shoot in winter. (b) Leaf (under side). (c) Staminate catkins. 
(d) Portion of staminate catkin (enlarged), (e) Portion of pistillate catkin (enlarged). (/) Mature pistillate 
catkin, (g) Nut. Cornwall (F. H. D.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 1328 bis et ter; Bourgeau (PI. d’Esp.) 873; Reichenbach, 2418; Schultz (F. I. E.), 126. 
Tree, attaining a height of about 30 m., suckers numerous. Bark not thick or suberous. 
Young branches very hairy. Stipules linear. Petioles about one-sixth as long as the laminae. 
Laminae coriaceous, glossy above, grey or almost white with matted hairs underneath. Catkins 
opening in late May. Pistillate catkins sessile. Stigmas 3 — 4. Fruiting involucre with appressed 
scales. Nuts 1 — 2 together, sessile or subsessile, subconical ; September. 
Naturalised in the south-west of England, as in Cornwall, by stream-sides, in woods where trees spring up 
from self-sown seeds ; planted commonly in parklands and plantations in southern England ; rare, even as a 
planted tree, north of the Midland counties. 
Indigenous in southern France (ascending to 1500 m.), the Tyrol, southern Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Spain, 
Corsica, Italy, the Balkan peninsula to Greece ; northern Africa ; the Orient. 
Subsection 2. * AEG/LOPS 
Aegilops Reichenbach FI. Germ. Excurs. 177 (1831); Cerris Loudon Arboret. iii, 1846 (1838); Ascherson und 
Graebner Syn. iv, 457 ( 1 9 1 1 ). 
For characters, see above. Only British species : — *Q. cerris. 
