Flowering Trees & Shrubs Codexery

Quercus suber

An evergreen oak that produces cork for stoppers and flooring.

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Its thick bark is harvested for cork used in wine stoppers, flooring, and cricket balls.[1] The tree can live over 200 years and is considered a defense against desertification.[1][2][3] The cork oak, known scientifically as Quercus suber, is an evergreen tree of medium stature that naturally occurs in southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeTracheophytes
  2. CladeAngiosperms
  3. CladeEudicots
  4. CladeRosids
  5. OrderFagales
  6. FamilyFagaceae
  7. GenusQuercus
  8. GenusQuercus
  9. SpeciesQuercus suber

Named by L.

Close relatives

Other species of Quercus with a Codexery entry.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Quercus suber (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

  1. LC▲ this species
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX
Population trend
Not held in our sources — see the assessment
Assessment published
2017

Source: IUCN Red List assessment · GBIF copy of the Red List category

Where the quercus suber has been recorded

Where the quercus suber has been recorded17 mapped locations from 704,260 GBIF occurrence records

Each dot is a place where the species has been observed and reported (704,260 records, half-degree grid) — not a modelled range. 212 inland records left out (institution coordinates). 1 isolated far-off record not drawn.

Map: drawn by Codexery. Data: GBIF occurrence search (records CC0 / CC BY) · Natural Earth basemap (public domain)

Biology and range

Its thick, cracked cork bark is gray-brown and can be 3 to 5 cm thick.[4] The leathery leaves are 2.5 to 10 cm long, light green above and whitish and hairy beneath.[5] Acorns are 2 to 4.5 cm long, with a smooth, shiny brownish-red pericarp.[6] Cork oak occupies the western Mediterranean basin, with natural stands in Portugal covering 750,000 hectares.[7]

It thrives at annual mean temperatures of 13 to 17 °C and can tolerate temperatures down to -5 °C.[8] The species needs light, endures drought, and grows on poor, dry, or rocky soils with pH between 4.5 and 7.[8] The bark allows it to survive fires and regrow branches, making it successful in fire-adapted Mediterranean ecosystems.[9] Cork oak forms mycorrhizal symbioses with several fungi, exchanging water and nutrients for photosynthesis products.[6]

This evergreen species typically attains heights between 10 and 15 meters, with its trunk diameter ranging from 50 to 100 cm.[10] Both female and male reproductive structures are found on a single cork oak specimen, making it monoecious.[5]

What the specialist sources record

According to the same source, a cork oak lives on average more than 200 years.[3] The Amorim source reports that each cork harvest yields an average of 40-60 kg of cork per tree.[3] The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy accepts Quercus suber L. as a species in the family Fagaceae, with 707,361 occurrence records.[11] The Amorim source notes that cork is composed of 45% suberin, 27% lignin, 12% polysaccharides, 6% tannins, and 5% ceroids.[3]

The Amorim source states that improved irrigation can reduce the first cork extraction cycle from 25 years to 10 years.[3] The Amorim source describes cork as lightweight, impermeable to liquids and gases, elastic, compressible, and a thermal and acoustic insulator.[3]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Eriksson, E., "Genetic conservation of Quercus suber", European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN), Bioversity International, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Put a cork in it!", WWF (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. "Mitos e curiosidades", Amorim. facts only, no text reused. amorim.com
  4. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 501"; "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 503"; "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 502"; "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 501"; "Quercus suber L.", Flora Iberica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 501" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 502" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 500"; "Information Bureau: 2019 Cork Sector in Numbers - APCOR", APCOR (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 504" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Santos Pereira, J., Bugalho, M.N., and Caldeira, M.D. (2008). From the Cork Oak to Cork: A Sustainable Ecosystem. APCOR: Portuguese Cork Association. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Quercus suber" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Enzyklopädie der Laubbäume. Page 501"; "Quercus suber L.", Flora Iberica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Quercus suber (taxon key 2879411). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Quercus suber (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Oak

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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