Quercus cerris

Planted: 1913

This tree is in the north west corner of the Arboretum

Distribution:	Native to south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor.
Planting Date:	1913, purchased from Plowman and son, High Street and Lubenham Hill, Market Harborough, Leicestershire
Growth Habit:	A large deciduous tree.
Bark:	Dark gray and deeply furrowed. On mature trees, the bark fissures are often streaked orange near the base of the trunk.
Leaf:	The glossy leaves are 7 to 14 cm long and 3 to 5 cm wide, with 6 to 12 triangular lobes on each side. The regularity of the lobing varies greatly.
Flowers:	Wind-pollinated catkins, maturing about 18 months after pollination.
Fruit:	A large acorn, 2.5 to 4 cm long and 2 cm broad. Bicoloured with an orange basal half grading to a green-brown tip. The cup is 2 cm deep, densely covered in soft ‘mossy’ bristles from 4 to 8 mmin length.
Toxicity:	Acorns are valuable food for many birds and small mammals. Toxic to humans, horses, dogs, cats, goats, and other larger mammals.
Potential tree size	25 to 40 m tall with a trunk up to 6.3m in girth.
Uses:	Wood has many of the characteristics of other oaks, but is very prone to crack and split and hence is relegated to such uses as fencing.
Plant Hunter:	Not known
Introduction Date:	The species’ range extended to northern Europe and the British Isles before the previous ice age, about 120,000 years ago. It was reintroduced in the UK and Ireland in the eighteenth century as an ornamental tree,
Anecdotes and Comments:	Also called Austrian Oak