The leaf looks like oak but not oak. large-fruited oak

These long-lived deciduous and evergreen trees are highly variable in foliage structure, overall size and habit. All of them form acorns - ovoid fruits-nuts, the base of which is immersed in a cup-shaped cupule - an extension of the stalk, covered with dressed, sometimes fringed scales. Oaks have a spreading crown and deep, extensive root system, so for small plot they don't fit. The trees discussed below are more or less cold-resistant, although this indicator is highly dependent on the species. Winter temperatures certainly have great importance. However, spring frosts cause much more damage, which damage the opened buds. Because of this, in some regions, oaks instead of a slender tree grow in the form of twisted shrubs.

Q. borealis

The crown is spherical. Leaves fall only in the most severe winters. Their plates are obovate, with rounded lobes, 12.5 cm long. The bark cracks with age and becomes brownish-gray. A heat-loving species that can be cultivated in Russia in the south Krasnodar Territory. Plant height and diameter - 8x5 m (20 years). The maximum height is 30 m.

Q. castaneifolia "Greenspire" (D. chestnut leaf)

The crown is narrow. The leaves falling for the winter are glossy, oblong or oval, with coarse triangular teeth along the edge, about 18 cm long. The height and diameter of the plant is 14x5 m (20 years). The maximum height is 30 m.

Q. coccinea (D. scarlet)

Dark green leaves turn scarlet in autumn and fall off. Their plate is 15 cm long, with pointed lobes. Silver-gray-brown bark remains smooth for many years. Homeland - the east of the USA and Yu.-V. Canada. In Europe, acorns are rarely formed. Resistant to -30°C. Plant height and diameter - 10x8 m (20 years). Maximum height - 25 m.

Splendens

In the variety, the autumn color of the leaves is especially attractive.

Q.frainetto (D. Hungarian)

The leaves are falling, leathery, multi-lobed, up to 18 cm long. Their plates are narrow at the base and widest at the top. Motherland - V. Europe. Withstands up to -20°C, and therefore recommended for the southern regions of Russia. Plant height and diameter - 8x5 m (20 years). The maximum height is 30 m.

Q. ilex (D. stone)

An evergreen tree with a spherical crown and dark gray cracked bark. Leaves up to 6 cm long, leathery, glossy, dark green above and gray below, sometimes with sparse sharp teeth. After a particularly hot summer, small and green, but viable acorns are formed. Despite the relative cold resistance, this oak feels best in a mild seaside climate. Homeland - Chile. This heat-loving subtropical species can only be grown on the Black Sea coast. Plant height and diameter - 6x5 m (20 years). Maximum height - 25 m.

Q. palustris (D. marsh)

Deciduous tree with a dense crown and silver-gray bark. Leaves up to 12.5 cm long with deeply cut toothed lobes, glossy green. After a hot summer, they become red-brown. Short shoots on young trees are angular, hairpin-like. The species tolerates wet soil well. Homeland - S. America. It is considered quite frost-resistant (up to -29 ° C). Plant height and diameter - 9x5 m (20 years). The maximum height is 30 m.

Q. pedunculata

A long-lived western European deciduous tree that prefers a maritime climate. The color of the bark varies from gray to black-brown. Leaves up to 17 cm long, broadly oval, with rounded lobes. Pluses sessile, without stalks. Winter hardiness varies depending on the form from -20°C to -30°C. Plant height and diameter - 6x4 m (20 years). The maximum height is 35 m.

Q. phellos (syn. Q. pumila) (D. willifolia, D. dwarf)

Semi-deciduous tree with a spherical crown and elliptical glossy leaves up to 15 cm long, which turn yellow and orange in autumn. Requires protection from wind and fertile, moist soil. Acorns are rarely formed. Homeland - southeastern United States. Relatively thermophilic: withstands frosts only down to -23°C. Plant height and diameter - 4x3 m (20 years). Maximum height -8 m.

Q. robur (syn. Q. pedunculata) (D. common, D. petiolate)

long-lived deciduous european tree with a spreading crown. The leaves are green, obovate, with rounded lobes, up to 14 cm long. One of the most winter-hardy species for central Russia. In some regions it suffers from spring frosts. Plant height and diameter - 6x4 m (20 years). Maximum height - 32 m.

Concordia

A small, slowly growing tree with a spherical crown and golden leaves sticking up.

Q. rubra (syn. Q. borealis) (D. red, D. northern)

Deciduous tree with a wide spherical crown. Leaves up to 20 cm long, with large triangular teeth and lobes. At first soft green, they become dull red, brown or orange-yellow in autumn. The bark is smooth, silvery gray or pale brown. Germinating acorns are rarely formed. Homeland - S. America. AT middle lane does not grow well everywhere. Tolerates winter temperatures down to -35°C, but is severely damaged by spring frosts. Plant height and diameter - 10x6 m (20 years). The maximum height is 30 m.

Q. sessiliflora

Semi-deciduous tree with a spherical crown. The bark quickly cracks and becomes dark brown. Leaves with finely carved lobes, dark green, up to 8 cm long. They often do not fall all winter. Frost resistance - up to -23°С. Plant height and diameter - 8x4 m (20 years). Maximum height -18 m.

cultivation

Plant in any well-developed, well-drained soil. Established specimens grow best in open sunny places, but young oaks tolerate partial shading well. If possible, open oak buds should not fall under spring frosts. Choose younger seedlings, because it is at an early age that a powerful taproot begins to develop.

Quercus robur
Taxon: Beech family ( Fagaceae)
Other names: pedunculate oak, summer oak, english oak
English: Oak, English oak, Truffle Oak, Pedunculate Oak

Botanical description

A large, beautiful, powerful deciduous tree, reaching 40-50 m in height and 2 m in diameter, sometimes 1000 or more years old. Oak evaporates during the warm season more than 100 tons of water, 225 times its own weight. There are about 20 species of oak in our country. The most common of them is the pedunculate oak. The root is powerful, widely branched; krone - well developed, sprawling. The bark of young shoots is smooth, slightly pubescent, olive-brown, while that of old shoots is gray-brown, in cracks. Leaves - oblong, obovate, narrowed downwards, pinnately lobed alternate, simple, short-petiolate, glabrous, dark green, shiny with protruding veins. In spring, oak blooms late, one of the last among deciduous trees.
Two forms of common oak are known - early and late. In the early oak, the leaves bloom in April and fall off for the winter, while in the late oak, they bloom two to three weeks later and remain on the young plants for the winter.
Oak blossoms in April - May, when it still has very small leaves. The flowers are unisexual, monoecious, very small and inconspicuous. Male or staminate flowers are collected in peculiar inflorescences - long and thin yellowish-greenish drooping catkins, reminiscent of hazel catkins. These earrings hang from the branches in whole bunches and are almost indistinguishable in color from young small leaves. Female or pistillate oak flowers are sessile, very tiny - no more than a pinhead. Each of them has the appearance of a barely noticeable greenish grain with a raspberry-red top. These flowers are located singly or 2-3 at the ends of special thin stems. Acorns grow from female flowers by autumn. After flowering, a small cup-shaped wrapper grows first - a plush, and then the fruit itself - an acorn. Acorns ripen at the end of September - beginning of October. Acorns do not tolerate drying out, the loss of even a small part of the water leads to their death.

Spreading

Oak grows in the forest and steppe zone Europe. In ancient times, almost half of the forests of Europe were oak forests, but now oak forests make up about 3% of all forests in Europe. Often dominates in mixed forests. On Far East, Crimea, in the Caucasus, other types of oak grow (fluffy oak, sessile oak).
Common oak is common in the middle and southern strips of the European part of Russia to the Urals. Oak does not tolerate cold and humid climates, while in the south it develops better.
Common oak forms frequent plantations or grows in a mixture with other species almost throughout Ukraine (in the steppe - mainly along river valleys).
Oaks are divided into summer, winter and evergreen. Of the 3 types of oak growing on the territory of Ukraine, the most common and important for the industry is the common oak (pedunculate or summer oak) Quercus robur L.

Collection and preparation of medicinal oak raw materials

As a medicinal raw material, oak bark is mainly used, which is harvested in early spring, without cork and wood. To collect the bark, only young trees cut down in logging sites and sanitary cuttings can be used. They dry it under awnings on outdoors or in well-ventilated areas. In good weather, you can dry in the sun. Dry bark breaks when bent, and under-dried bark bends. It is necessary to ensure that the bark does not get wet during drying, since in this case it loses a significant part of the tannins contained in it. According to the Pharmacopoeia, for non-crushed oak bark raw materials, the numerical indicators should be: tannins not less than 8%, moisture content not more than 15%, total ash not more than 8%; pieces of bark that have darkened with inside, not more than 5%, organic impurities not more than 1%, mineral impurities not more than 1%. Shelf life of raw materials is 5 years. The smell of dry bark is absent, but when infused in water and especially in hot water there is a characteristic smell characteristic of fresh bark. The taste is strongly astringent.

Biologically active substances of oak

First of all, raw oak is considered as a source of tannins. The bark contains 10-20% tannins, they are also included in the chemical composition of leaves and fruits (5-8%). Tannins are a mixture of structurally similar phenolic compounds. From this group, the composition of oak bark tannins includes both a group of condensed and a group of hydrolyzed tannins.
In addition to tannins, oak bark contains organic acids (gallic, ellagic), carbohydrates, starch, pentosans (13-14%), flavonoids, quartzetin, proteins. The bark also contains: trace elements (mg / g): K - 1.40, Ca - 23.00, Mn - 0.60, Fe - 0.20; trace elements (µg/g): Mg - 142.60, Cu - 12.30, Zn - 10.20, Cr - 0.80, Al - 116.08, Ba - 537.12, V - 0.08, Se - 0.04, Ni - 1.84, Sr - 212.00, Pb - 3.04, B - 74.80. Ca, Ba, Se, Sr are concentrated.
The composition of oak fruits - acorns - includes starch, tannins and proteins, sugars, fatty oils (up to 5%). Thanks to this composition, acorns, together with chicory, are part of the mixture, which is used as a coffee substitute and has fairly high nutritional properties.
Oak leaves contain in its chemical composition tannins, quercetin, quercitrin, pentosans.
Gali formed on oak leaves contain a large amount of tannins.

The use of oak in medicine

Galenic oak bark preparations have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. The tannins of the plant determine the main tannic effect. When applying galenic oak preparations to a wound or mucous membrane, interaction with proteins is observed, with the formation of protective film which protects tissues from local irritation. This slows down the inflammation process and reduces pain. Tannins denature the protoplasmic proteins of pathogenic microorganisms, which leads to a delay in their development or death.
To date, data have been accumulated on the spectrum of the resorptive action of tannins, including antispasmodic, hypotensive, antiviral and a number of other effects.
The composition of tannins includes a mixture of polyphenols, which, when interacting with oxidizing radicals, form semiquinoid radicals and radical ions, in the presence of which the peroxidation intensity decreases, therefore, the antioxidant activity of tannins can be noted.
For tannins, anti-carcinogenic and anti-radiation activity has been established.
According to the method of use, oak bark preparations can be divided into two groups: external and internal use.
Oak preparations are used externally for:
diseases of the oral cavity (gingivitis, stomatitis, amphodontosis);
inflammation of the tonsils;
;
bleeding gums;
skin diseases (ulcers, eczema, bedsores);
washing purulent and decaying wounds;
burn treatment.
Internal preparations of oak are used for:
treatment, enteritis, colitis, dysentery, cholera;
complex therapy of diseases of the stomach;
bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract;
complex therapy of diseases of the kidneys and bladder;
poisoning with alkaloids and salts heavy metals as an antidote.

It is worth noting that the data toxicological properties tannins characterize them as practically non-toxic compounds.
Oak bark is part of various collections from medicinal plants and as part of complex medicines.
Oak bark is part of the preparations:
Dragee "Tonzilgon N", manufacturer "Bionorica AG", is used for acute chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract (tonsillitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis), prevention of complications in respiratory viral infections and as an adjunct to antibiotic therapy for bacterial infections;
Gel "Vitaprokt" used to treat acute and chronic;
The drug "Polyhemostat" used in surgical practice as a hemostatic drug.

The use of oak in other industries

Common oak is used as a source of wood and raw materials for the tanning industry, as a volatile, food, melliferous, fodder, ornamental and phytomeliorative plant.
For the tanning industry, oak bark at the age of 15-20 years is considered the best. Since the bark is a good tanning agent, it is used directly as a tanning material, and tanning extracts are produced from the tree.
Oak wood has beautiful colour and texture. It is dense, strong, resilient, well preserved in the air, in the ground and under water, slowly cracks and deforms, easily pricks, resistant to decay and house fungus.
The oak tree is used in shipbuilding, the furniture industry, for the production of parquet, mine and hydraulic structures, for the manufacture of rims, skids, plywood, turning and carved products, parts of horse-drawn carts (golobel, wheels). Especially appreciated " bog oak"- tree trunks that have lain at the bottom of lakes or for a year for many years. Such wood becomes extremely durable and has an almost black color.
Oak wood does not have a special smell; barrels for wine, beer, alcohol, vinegar, and oil are made from it.
Oak wood is an excellent fuel.
Common oak - spring honey plant. Bees collect a lot of highly nutritious pollen on it, in some years they collect nectar from female flowers. But honeydew (exudation of plant juices) and honeydew (plant juice processed by insects) often appear on oak. In places where oak occupies large areas, bees collect a lot of honeydew and honeydew, from which they produce honey unsuitable for winter eating. To avoid the mass death of bees during wintering, such honey is pumped out.
Oak leaves contain the pigment quercetin, which, depending on the concentration, dyes wool and products from it in yellow, green, brown and black.
Oak acorns are highly nutritious food for wild animals and domestic pigs. However, cases of poisoning by acorns (especially green ones) of other domestic animals are known. Acorn flour is also suitable for human food.
Oak brooms in a Russian bath are not inferior to birch brooms, or even surpass them.
used in landscaping as an ornamental and phytoncidal plant when creating suburban groves, alleys, single plantations in parks and forest parks. known decorative forms oak ordinary - with a pyramidal crown, in which the foliage falls 15 - 20 days later than in the usual one.

Among the Slavic peoples, oak has long been considered a symbol male power and personification of the power of the people. Therefore, it was customary to reward royalty or simply distinguished people in the old days not only with gifts, but also with a wreath of oak branches.

Where and how does oak grow.

Nowadays in the world there are more than 450 various kinds this tree. Now oak is widespread not only in Europe and Asia, but also in America and even Africa. This is one of the most tall trees, often reaching a height of 50 m and, most surprisingly, up to 5 m in girth. There are quite a few trees of this height in the world, but only oak can boast of such power.

What else is oak known for?

Oak is especially appreciated because of the beautiful and very durable wood, from which especially expensive, elite furniture is made. It reproduces by fruits called acorns. The oak fruit ripens, like the fruits of others - in the fall. They are rich in starch. Sometimes they are used to prepare a surrogate drink that tastes like coffee, and in ancient times, and even more recently, in the second world war and during the famine of them cooked bread .

Their oak leaves in antiquity boiled healing decoction , which relieved gum disease, healed stab and cut wounds, helped stop external and internal bleeding.

The mighty oak has been revered by people since ancient times. Among the ancient Greeks, it was a symbol of longevity, mental and physical strength, so wreaths made from oak leaves were considered the best reward for brave warriors. The largest and largest trees symbolized Zeus and were his natural monuments.

Oaks are deciduous trees from the beech family. The oak genus includes about six hundred species of plants, which can be seen in all regions of the Northern Hemisphere, where a temperate climate prevails. The southernmost point of distribution of this plant is the tropical highlands, although some species grow near the equator, in Bolivia and the Greater Sunda Islands.

Most representatives of the genus are photophilous (although there are species that prefer to grow in partial or complete shade), resistant to frost and drought, undemanding to the composition of the soil and can grow on dry, acidic and even saline lands.

The oldest member of the genus

The mighty oak is a long-lived plant: the age of the oldest oak in Europe is from 1.5 to 2 thousand years. At the same time, it is not high: the height of the tree does not exceed 25 meters, but the diameter at the level of one and a half meters from the surface of the earth reaches four.

An old oak grows in Latvia, not far from the village of Stelmuzh, from where its name came from - “Stelmuzhsky old man”. It is interesting that earlier there was a huge hollow inside the tree, because of which the old oak could die. To prevent this, the hollow was cleared of dust, which took several dump trucks to remove, disinfected and sealed the holes with copper sheets. True, such methods only briefly extended the life of the mighty oak. Its condition is currently close to critical: the bark of the oak is overgrown with mosses, lichens, fungi, and the likelihood that the old oak will die soon is high.

Description

Not every plant manages to live to such an advanced age: usually these trees live from three hundred to four hundred years. For the first hundred years, they grow in length, depending on the species, they grow up to 20-50 meters, after which growth stops in height. But in diameter, a large oak tree grows throughout its life.

According to the description, trees from this genus are very similar to each other. Oak roots are thick, long, rod-type, but if a large oak grows on highly waterlogged or podzolic soil, where limestone or other dense rocks are close to the surface of the earth that do not allow to break deeper, then oak roots can be located superficially.

Oak wood is very dense, strong, hard and heavy, and its properties largely depend on where it grows:

• If the soil is dry and sandy, the oak bark is thick and black. The wood is straw-yellow, fine-layered, hard, but slightly elastic;
• Oak wood, which grows on the coast of rivers or in lowland forest swamps, is large-layered, has a pale pink tint, is heavy, elastic, but cracks when it dries. Oak bark light gray with a blue tint.
• If a large oak tree is not growing on dry and moist soil (transitional), its wood will be yellowish in color and have better elasticity than a dry soil plant, and less than that which has grown in swamps. At the same time, this type will also be inferior in hardness to the two previous types. The gray-brown oak bark, which has taken root in the transitional soil, is soft, thick, and a hollow often appears in the trunk of the plant.

The oak bark is dark gray in color, completely covered with sinuous and deep longitudinal and transverse cracks. At the same time, in trees growing in colder latitudes, the oak bark consists of individual plates.

A large oak has a beautiful, extensive crown. It's caused quite interesting location branches: the mighty oak is light-loving plant, therefore, the shoots produced by the tree very often change the direction of their growth, since they tend to grow only from the side illuminated by the sun.

The leaves of the tree are short-petioled, leathery, have five to seven lobes. Plants from the genus of oaks are interesting in that for some trees the foliage falls off annually, for others, drying out, it remains on the tree until the buds begin to bloom. But in the third (most of them) the leaves remain on the tree for several years, which gives reason to call representatives of the genus evergreen.

Bloom

Since a large oak is a long-lived plant, a young oak begins to bear fruit only for 20-30 years of life. Although the tree bears fruit every year, a bountiful harvest is obtained every four to five years.

A large oak tree blooms in the spring immediately after the leaves appear on it. The plant has both male and female flowers. Male can be identified by the pale pink color of the flowers, which are collected in two or three pieces in long earrings. After the earring blooms, the pollen released by it is viable for four to five days.

The female flowers are small, located above the male ones, they are characterized by a greenish tint with a crimson color along the edges, and, like the male ones, are collected in small catkins.

The fruit of the plant, the acorn, which botanists believe is a nut, consists of one large seed. Since it is very sensitive to external influences, it is protected by a rigid pericarp and a cup-shaped cupule (a special formation of fused leaves), which at first completely surrounds the seed, and as the fruit grows and strengthens, it ends up at its base. Acorns ripen by autumn and, breaking away from the plush, fall down. Most germinate immediately, without waiting for the arrival of spring, while if the winter is severe, then many die.

Diseases

Despite the fact that the large oak has a very strong wood, it is subject to infectious diseases which are caused by various fungi and bacteria. For example, necrosis (the process of irreversible cessation of cell activity) kills the plant in a very short time, a powdery mildew caused by a fungus is one of the most dangerous diseases, however, seen on early stage, after spraying with special solutions, quickly disappears.

Also, gall midge, a pest insect that pierces the skin of the leaf and lays eggs inside it, causes considerable harm.

Grown up larvae form dense spherical outgrowths yellow color and live in the leaf until they turn into an adult insect, which cannot but affect the general condition of the plant.

Application

A large oak is notable for the fact that its use is possible in many areas of human life - in construction, in furniture production, in folk crafts, in Food Industry, medicine and even music (it is used to make musical instruments). In addition, when landscaping streets, squares, parks, plants are also used for decorative purposes.

The wood of the plant is one of the best building and ornamental materials: it is distinguished not only by its density and strength, but also by fire resistance (the calorific value is much higher than that of many tree species growing in the middle latitudes).

Bottle caps are also made from this tree: the bark of the cork oak, which grows in the south of France, in Spain, Algeria and the Caucasus, contains a thick layer of cork, which is several centimeters thick.

Acorns of some plant species have found use in the food industry: especially for trees that grow in the south. So, acorns of the Italian holm oak, sweet in taste. There is also evidence that the Indians often ate them. As for acorns growing on the territory of Russia, only a coffee substitute is made from them. one more interesting fact When it comes to the use of these plants is that oak roots are completely related to the most expensive mushrooms in the world - truffles.

Oak bark, acorns, branches, leaves have found their application in medicine. Acorns contain sugar, starch, tannins and proteins, fatty oil. The leaves contain dyes, pentosan, tannins.

The properties of oak bark are such that it has been used as a wound healing and anti-inflammatory agent. Since oak bark contains sugar, pectin, various acids, it is part of drinks that are used for colitis, liver diseases, bleeding of the intestines, spleen or stomach.

Also, the resulting decoction has a beneficial effect on the nervous and cardiovascular system. Oak bark is recommended even by dentists: a decoction of it helps with inflammation of the gums, thanks to it the mucous membrane hardens, as a result of which harmful bacteria are deprived of a nutrient medium. And after a while, the hardened shell is replaced by a new, healthy tissue.

durability and appearance oak trees made a great impression on people in ancient times. Old trees were worshiped as temples of the deity by most of the peoples of Europe. The ancient Romans and Greeks believed that this mighty tree is the habitat of their supreme deities - Jupiter and Zeus. This is why the Roman Empire celebrated its prominent citizens with oak leaf wreaths. The mention of these trees is found even in the Old Testament.

Description and distribution of oak

This genus of plants, first identified in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, has between 400 and 600 species. The area of ​​distribution includes most of northern hemisphere, extending from the temperate to the tropical zone on different continents:

• America.
• Europe.
• North Africa and Asia.

AT North America grows the largest number species, with about 90 found in the United States and 160 in Mexico, of which 109 species are endemic. The second largest center of oak diversity is China, which has about 100 species.

In Europe, during the Ice Age, oak populations were limited to only three areas located in Spain, Italy and the Balkans. Later, they again colonized the territory of the European continent. Today, oaks are key species in a wide range of habitats of Mediterranean semi-desert and subtropical forests. They are also important components of deciduous forests.

Oak leaves are traditionally important part regalia of the German army. The Nazi Party used the traditional German eagle as its coat of arms, standing over a swastika in a wreath of oak leaves.

During the Third Reich of Nazi Germany, oak leaves were depicted on the cross of the Knights of the Iron Cross. They also symbolize the title in Armed Forces U.S.A.