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Sommereik: The Common Oak


Plant group: NS 4402 Lauvtre (H6)

 The Oldest Oaks:

Oak is a long-lived tree, with a large wide spreading crown of rugged branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health. Two individuals of notable longevity are the Stelmužė Oak in Lithuania and the Granit Oak in Bulgaria, which are believed to be more than 1500 years old, possibly making them the oldest oaks in Europe.



Photo: Kongeegen, 1916, Denmark, K. V. Nielsens Boghhandel


Another specimen, called the 'Kongeegen' ('Kings Oak'), estimated to be about 1200 years old, grows in Jaegerspris, Denmark. Yet another can be found in Kvilleken, Sweden, that is over 1000 years old and 14 metres (46 ft) around. Of maiden (not pollarded) specimens, one of the oldest is the great oak of Ivenack, Germany. Tree-ring research of this tree and other oaks nearby gives an estimated age of 700 to 800 years. The highest density of Q. robur with a circumference of 4 metres (13 ft) and more is in Latvia.

Oak, also known as Quercus robur and Q. petraea are considered as the king of the forests. These majestic trees can grow very old and big. The oldest known oak tree in Norway is 1000 years of age. Oak is one of the so-called «noble» tree-species in Norway, that is, they are dependent on a warm climate and grow only in the southern part of the country.


Illustration by Swedish botanist C. A. M. Lindman
from his book- Bilder ur Nordens Flora



Oak is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is native to most of Europe, west of the Caucasus. The tree is widely cultivated in temperate regions and has escaped into the wild in scattered parts of China and North America.

A close relative is the sessile oak (Q. petraea), which shares much of its range. It is native to Europe, Anatolia and Iran.

 Q. robur is distinguished from this species by its leaves having only a very short stalk (petiole) 3–8 mm long, and by its pedunculate acorns. The two often hybridise in the wild, the hybrid being known as Quercus × rosacea.

Quercus robur should not be confused with Q. rubra, the red oak (rødeik), which is a native of North America and only distantly related. 

Quercus robur is a large deciduous tree, with circumference of grand oaks from 4 m (13 ft) to exceptional 12 m (39 ft).

 Flowering takes place in mid spring, and the fruit, called acorns, ripen by mid autumn. The acorns are 2–2.5 cm long, pedunculate, 3–7 cm long with one to four acorns on each peduncle.

Quercus robur is very tolerant to soil conditions and the continental climate but it prefers fertile and well-watered soils. Mature trees tolerate flooding.


Photo: 2017, 'The old master', 1000 year old oak in Krødsherad, Norway


Within its native range Q. robur is valued for its importance to insects and other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the acorns. Q. robur is the species that supports the highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant (>400 spp). The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small mammals and some birds, notably Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius. Jays were overwhelmingly the primary propagators of oaks before humans began planting them commercially (and still remain the principal propagators for wild oaks), because of their habit of taking acorns from the umbra of its parent tree and burying them undamaged elsewhere. Mammals, notably squirrels who tend to hoard acorns and other nuts usually leave them too abused to grow in the action of moving or storing them.













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