An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae (she-oaks). The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America has the largest number of oak species, with approximately 160 species in Mexico of which 109 are endemic and about 90 in the United States. The second greatest area of oak diversity is China, with approximately 100 species.
Fagaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Fagaceae in temperate regions are mostly deciduous, whereas in the tropics, many species occur as evergreen trees and shrubs. They are characterized by alternate simple leaves with pinnate venation, unisexual flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of cup-like (cupule) nuts. Their leaves are often lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, which may consist of one to seven seeds. In the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits. Other members of the family have fully enclosed nuts. Fagaceae is one of the most ecologically important woody plant families in the Northern Hemisphere, as oaks form the backbone of temperate forest in North America, Europe, and Asia and one of the most significant sources of wildlife fodder.
Quercus palustris, the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance.
Quercus garryana is an oak tree species of the Pacific coast of North America, with a range stretching from southern California to southwestern British Columbia. It is commonly known as the Oregon white oak or Oregon oak in the United States and as the Garry oak in Canada. It grows from sea level to 210 meters (690 ft) altitude in the northern part of its range, and at 300 to 1,800 meters in the south of the range in California. The eponymous Nicholas Garry was deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1822–35.
Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period.
Quercus petraea, commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial emblem in Wales and Cornwall.
Quercus douglasii, known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominant species in the blue oak woodland ecosystem. It is occasionally known as mountain oak and iron oak.
Sir Dietrich Brandis was a German-British botanist and forestry academic and administrator, who worked with the British Imperial Forestry Service in colonial India for nearly 30 years. He joined the British civil service in Burma in 1856, shortly afterwards became head of the British forestry administration in all of Burma, and served as Inspector General of Forests in India from 1864 to 1883. He returned to Europe in 1883, dividing his time between Bonn and Greater London. In retirement he dedicated himself to scholarly work, resulting in the book Indian Trees (1906), his magnum opus. Brandis is considered the father of tropical forestry and has also been described as the father of scientific forestry. In addition to his work in India, he also had a significant influence on forest management in the United States.
An oak savanna is a type of savanna-or lightly forested grassland- where oaks are the dominant trees, the term oakery or woodlands is also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Mediterranean area. These savannas were maintained historically through wildfires set by lightning, humans, grazing, low precipitation, and/or poor soil.
The Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests are an ecoregion in the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome, in the Eastern United States. The ecoregion is located in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It covers an area of about 61,500 square miles (159,000 km2) in: northeast Alabama and Georgia, northwest South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and central West Virginia and Pennsylvania; and small extensions into Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York.
Shorea obtusa, the Siamese sal, is a species of hardwood tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae, native to Southeast Asia.
Quercus myrsinifolia is an Asian species of tree in the ring-cupped oaks subgenus of the family Fagaceae. It has several common names, including bamboo-leaf oak, Chinese evergreen oak, and Chinese ring-cupped oak. Its Chinese name is 小叶青冈; pinyin: xiǎo yè qīng gāng, which means little leaf ring-cupped oak, in Japan it is called white oak and in Korea it is known as gasinamu (가시나무). It is native to east central and southeast China, Japan, Korea, Laos, northern Thailand, and Vietnam.
Phu Soi Dao National Park named after 2,120 metres (6,960 ft) high Phu Soi Dao mountain, is a protected area at the southern end of the Luang Prabang Range in the Thai/Lao border area, on the Thai side of the range. It is located in Ban Khok and Nam Pat Districts of Uttaradit Province and Chat Trakan District of Phitsanulok Province. The park was established as Thailand's 109th national park in 2008.
Quercus pyrenaica, commonly known as Pyrenean oak, is a tree native to southwestern Europe and northwestern North Africa. Despite its common name, it is rarely found in the Pyrenees Mountains and is more abundant in northern Portugal and north and northwestern Spain.
Cananga brandisiana is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Jean Baptiste Louis Pierre, the French botanist who first formally described the species, using the basionym Unona brandisiana, named it in honor of Sir Dietrich Brandis, the German botanist for whom Pierre worked in the Indian Forest Service in Calcutta.
The Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests is an ecoregion on Malay Peninsula. It occupies the mountainous spine of the peninsula in Malaysia and southernmost Thailand. It is in the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome.
The Luang Prabang montane rain forests ecoregion covers elevations over 800 meters in the Luang Prabang mountains that straddle the border between northern Thailand and north-central Laos, and the highlands that stretch eastward across north-central Laos. While much of the forest cover has been degraded, there are still large areas of relatively untouched forest.
The Northern Thailand–Laos moist deciduous forests ecoregion follows the upper course of the Nan River in northern Thailand and the Mekong River in Laos. This area has the highest proportion of tree cover in Thailand, with many forests dominated by Teak. The river valleys have been under pressure from human use: agriculture, teak plantations, and hunting have reduce plant and animal presence.
Quercus wutaishanica, the Liaoning oak, is a species of oak native to Mongolia, China, and possibly Korea. It is the dominant species in the forest of the Loess Plateau.
