Flora of Israel: Cork oak

Quercus suber, Cork oak,
Hebrew: אלון השעם, Arabic: السنديان الفليني


Scientific name:		Quercus suber L.
Common name:		Cork oak
Hebrew name:		אלון השעם
Arabic name:		السنديان الفليني
Family:		Fagaceae, Beech family, אלוניים

_{Weizman Insitute, Rehovot}


Life form:		Evergreen tree
Stems:		Up to 20 m high, with thick, corky bark; twigs tomentose
Leaves:		3-7 cm long, ovate-oblong, sinuate-dentate, dark green above, grey-tomentose beneath; midrib sinuous
Inflorescence:		Monoecious flowers; male inflorescences are long, pedunculate and arise from the axillary buds of the previous year’s branches; female flowers appear on vigorous new growth
Flowers:		Insignificant monoecious flowers, yellow-green; staminate flower, stamens 4–10; pistillate flower; calyx minute, generally 6-lobed; ovary enclosed by involucre.
Fruits / pods:		Acorns, 2-3cm long, oval-oblong
Flowering Period:		Spring
Habitat:		Mediterranean maquis and forest
Distribution:		North Africa: N Algeria, Marocco, Tunisia, Europe: Corsica, France, ES Italy, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain
Chorotype:		Mediterranean
Summer shedding:		Perennating

_{Weizman Insitute, Rehovot}
Derivation of the botanical name:

Quercus, Latin for oak.

suber, cork.
The Hebrew name: אלון, alon, properly ‘a large strong tree’, and like אלה ( = terebinth; oak) derived from אול, oel (= to be strong); related to Akkadian: allanu.

The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.

The primary source of commercial cork. The outer layer is harvested from this tree manually with a hatchet. The first cutting takes place when the tree is 25 years old, and it can be harvested once a decade thereafter. Harvesting the cork does not harm the tree, and a new layer of cork is gradually regenerated (100 trees at the Weizmann Institute of Science).

_{Weizman Insitute, Rehovot}