Q. pyrenaica - Pyrenees Oak

A rounded crown medium size Oak that rarely reaches up to 100 feet in height and 80 feet wide with a trunk diameter up to 5 feet. It is slow growing and at most can reach 2 feet in a year. The Pyrenees Oak is very long lived up to 600 years.

The elliptic, leathery leaves up to 9 x 5 inches are deeply lobed though the lobes are often untoothed. They are deep green and smooth above and hairy beneath. The spring flowers are yellow drooping catkins and the acorns in fall are up to 1.5 inches. Native to Italy & sw Europe; it is naturalized in Belgium and planted in the British Isles.

Generally hardy only north to zone 7 ( tolorating -4F ) it can be grown much further north with careful selection. There is a clone sold by Oikos Tree Crops that is hardy to -20F. The Pyrenees Oak has however been largely untested in the U.S. where our hot summers make many trees tolorate more winter cold than they would do in Europe.

'Pendula' is very attractive large tree with strong weeping side shoots

גלריית תמונות - אתר Gunter