Quercus robur (English or Pedunculate Oak)

Common Name: Pedunculate Oak

Quercus robur, or the English or Pedunculate oak, is probably the most well-known and best-loved of the tree species native to Britain. This king of the forest can live for more than a millennium according to some sources, and grow up to 40 m high. Mature specimens are usually home to a wide variety of wildlife.

The leaves are around 10cm long with 4–5 deep lobes with smooth edges. Leaf-burst occurs mid-May and the leaves have almost no stem and grow in bunches. In the spring the flowers are long, yellow hanging catkins which distribute pollen into the air.

Acorns are 2–2.5cm long, on long stalks and in cupules (the cup-shaped base of the acorn). As it ripens, the green acorn turns brown, loosens from the cupule and falls to the canopy below, sprouting the following spring.

Can be confused with the Sessile Oak, Quercus petraea, but this tree has leaves with stalks and its acorns don’t have stalks (the opposite in Pedunculate oak which has tiny or no leaf stalks and acorns on longer stalks).

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