Description of oak. Oak crown. Oak root system

Quercus robur

L., 1753

Quercus longaeva Salisb.nom. illeg.
Quercus pedunculata Ehrh.

English oak

, or
Summer Oak
, or
Common Oak
, or
English Oak
(lat. Quércus róbur) is the type species of the genus Oak (
Quercus
) of the Beech family (
Fagaceae
); a large tree reaching a height of 30-40 m, forming broad-leaved forests (oak groves) in the southern forest and forest-steppe zones.

Favorite of gods and people - oak (tree)

Let's start the description with mythology, because dozens of peoples have revered this tree since ancient times and made up legends about it. Oak is considered one of the most popular on Earth. The ancient Greeks compared its mighty trunk and spreading crown with Zeus, the Romans - with Jupiter. A description of the oak tree would be incomplete without mentioning that among the ancient Slavs the tree personified the Thunder God - Perun.

People of different nationalities and religions treat oak with equal respect and find various uses for its wood, bark, leaves and fruits. It is difficult to say which part of the plant is most popular. A powerful trunk, an extensive root system and a wide crown are associated with power, strength, and longevity. The leathery leaves of the winter subspecies, which remain on the branches until severe frosts, personify unparalleled courage and perseverance.

Durable and solid oak wood is used in construction, furniture industry, and other industries. The bark contains a significant amount of tannins and other useful compounds that are used in the tanning industry, the forest chemical industry, and medicine. Acorns serve as food for numerous forest inhabitants. The population collects fruits for pets, planting beautiful trees in green areas, and making acorn coffee.

At the venerable age of 200–400 years, the height of trees can reach 40–50 m, diameter - 2 m. In different parts of the Earth there are older oak trees that live 700–2000 years. Usually such old specimens are declared natural monuments and taken under protection.

Recipes for various diseases

DIARRHEA

Take 1 tablespoon of crushed oak bark, pour 2 cups of boiling water, keep on fire for 15 minutes, remove from heat and leave for 1 hour, strain. Take 1/3 cup 2-3 times a day.

Brew 1 teaspoon of chopped acorns with 1 glass of boiling water. Take 1/2 cup 2-3 times a day for prolonged diarrhea (chronic colitis).

ULCER DISEASE OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES

Take 4 tablespoons of oak bark, pour 1 liter of boiling water, boil for 20 minutes, cool. Take 1 tablespoon of the decoction 2-3 times a day.

ANGINA,

PERIODONTOSIS,

STOMATITIS, GINGIVITIS

Pour 2 teaspoons of crushed oak bark with 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, strain while hot. Rinse your mouth and throat with 1/2 cup 2 times a day - morning and evening.

HAIR LOSS

Take equal parts of oak bark and onion peel. Pour 1 cup of the mixture with 1 cup of boiling water and leave for 1 hour. Rub into scalp daily.

HYPERTENSION

Inhale the vapors of an oak broom steamed with hot water. HERNIA Prepare a mixture of crushed leaves, acorns and oak bark. Take 1 tablespoon of the mixture and pour 1 glass of red wine, put on fire for 10 minutes. Strain. Place a compress of warm infusion on the hernia.

FROSTBITE, EXTENSIVE BURN, PUTENTAL SKIN LESIONS, THROMBOPHLEBITIS

Take 500 g of crushed bark, pour in 4 liters of water, put on fire and boil for 30 minutes, leave for 1 hour, strain. Pour the resulting broth into a warm bath of water. Such baths have an antipyretic effect, promote wound healing, and soothe tense veins.

SWEATY FEET

Pour 100 g of oak bark into 5 liters of water, put on fire and boil. Do foot baths every night at night.

TRICHOMONAS COLPITIS

Grind young oak leaves into a paste, wrap in gauze and insert tampons into the vagina.

Common oak According to the book Phytotherapy

English oak, common

— (Quercus robur L.), beech family.

Everyone knows the appearance of this common tree among us - powerful, often gnarled oaks. The common oak prefers moist soils and is common in mixed forests. To obtain bark, the shrubby form of oak is cultivated. The bark is harvested approximately every 10 years, completely cutting down young oak trees. In the clearing, oak shoots are rising again.

The bark of young branches is used for medicinal purposes. The bark is cut off in early spring. It is clear that only the bark that has not yet been covered with cork is valuable. It is shiny and easily distinguishable from the much less valuable rough bark of older branches.

Anyone who wants to store oak bark themselves should try to get it from a clear-cut and make sure that the diameter of the branches does not exceed 6 cm. In early spring, during sap flow, the bark is easily separated, which reduces labor costs. The bark must be dried quickly. Oak bark is perhaps the best known and most commonly used material with tanning properties. Tannins have an astringent and anti-inflammatory effect, so during diarrhea they “fix” the intestines. Hence many other possibilities for the medicinal use of oak bark. An infusion or decoction is good as a rinse for infections of the mouth and throat, as well as for inflammation of the gums. Baths with oak bark decoction help with frostbite on the hands and feet, lotions are applied to sore eyes, compresses with oak bark decoction treat weeping eczema, burns and secondary infected leg ulcers.

Description of oak

The genus Quercus belongs to the Beech family (Fagaceae). It is represented by almost 600 species of deciduous trees, sometimes shrubs. Oaks are distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, but are more often found in the zone of deciduous forests, forest-steppes and steppes of Eurasia. The most common types: common oak (English, pedunculate), downy, sessile, cork. These are beautiful, long-lasting landscape trees. The Mediterranean flora, including the Caucasus region, includes up to 15–18 species of oak trees.

There is still no consensus on the origin of the Latin name of the genus Oak (Quercus). The term "quercus" could come from the Greek word "kerkein", meaning "rough" in translation. Indeed, a noticeable feature of trees in old oak groves is their gray bark, covered in deep cracks.

On the territory of Russia, a typical representative is the pedunculate oak (tree). Description: This is a large, tall tree with a well-developed crown. Living trunks at an advanced age are covered with thick gray bark with deep cracks. The branches of young specimens are almost smooth, shiny, gray-brown in color. New shoots with buds are red-brown, covered with gray hairs resembling felt.

There are summer and winter forms, which often grow together, but differ in the timing of blossoming and shedding of foliage, and the flowering period. Experts say that wood of these forms has different economic value. For furniture and parquet, winter oak, as well as bog oak (which has lain under water without access to oxygen), is preferable.

Associated forest cover

Pin oak

- The main species for only one type of forest cover,
the sweetgum oak
, which is found in
floodplains
and some uplands in the central part of the oak's range.
Pin oak and gum oak ( Liquidambar styraciflua
) vary in their relative proportions in this type of cover.
Large areas of nearly pure oak occur in the "pine oak plains" of the upland glacial plains or in the lowlands of the lower Ohio and central Mississippi River valleys. Associated species in this forest type include red maple ( Acer rubrum
), American elm (
Ulmus americana
), black tupelo (
Nyssa sylvatica
), swamp white oak (
Quercus bicolor
), willow oak (
Quercus phellos
), evening oak (
Quercus lyrata
), black oak (
Quercus macrocarpa
), green ash (
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
), Nuttall oak (
Quercus texana
), swamp chestnut oak (
Quercus michauxii
), as well as coquina (
Carya laciniosa
) and doublebark hickory (
Carya ovata
).

Pin oak is a species associated with silver maple and American elm forests in the lowlands along the Ohio, Wabash, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers. A variant of this type, silver maple–American elm–pin oak–sweetgum, is found along major streams in southern Illinois and Indiana.

Pin oak also occurs in black ash, American elm, and red maple forests in poorly drained lowlands in northern Ohio and Indiana along with silver maple ( Acer saccharinum

), swamp white oak, sycamore (
Platanus occidentalis
), black tupelo and eastern cottonwood (
Populus deltoides
).

Bark

Development of underground organs

Oak is a dicotyledonous plant and has a taproot. A tree densely covered with foliage needs a lot of moisture and nutrients. Oak groves are demanding of soil fertility; they need loose substrates rich in humus and mineral elements. The oak root system can reach a length of 10 m with a crown diameter of 25 m. Thanks to powerful underground organs, trees grow very stable, able to withstand heavy rains and squally winds.

A natural element that can cause significant damage to oak forests is icing. Under the weight of tens of kilograms of frozen water, oak branches bend to the ground and break. The tree dies because it loses a significant part of its crown and becomes easy prey for insect pests and other phytoparasites. At low air temperatures, young branches and undergrowth of oak seedlings are damaged.

Crown and leaves

English oak is a light-loving species and grows best when illuminated from the east. In continuous plantings it tolerates side darkening, then lighting is required in the upper part of the crown. The oak leaf grows on a short petiole and is obovate in shape, pinnately lobed. The leaf blade is slightly leathery on top, shiny, dark green in color; the lower surface is light green.

The oak crown is spherical and spreading if the tree grows in an open place. In forests and parks, with strong thickening, the trunk becomes elongated, the branches grow asymmetrically, and become bent. The crown of a freely growing young tree has a beautiful wide pyramidal shape.

Wood [ edit | edit code ]

Oak wood is distinguished by its strength, strength, density, hardness and heaviness. The properties of wood depend on the growing conditions of the tree. This is how it differs:

bog oak
,
oak
or
stone
, grown in dry sandy places - in oak groves or pine forests; its bark is thick, almost black; the wood is fine-grained, straw-yellow in color, hard, but has little elasticity;
ols oak
,
lead
,
iron
or
water oak
, growing along the banks of flowing waters and in elevated places, among alder swamps (
ols
); it has leathery bark of a light bluish-gray color, covered with whitish spots, and a straight trunk with a dense, rarely dry, top; large-layer wood with a pale pink tint and white sapwood, very heavy, very elastic, but very cracking when dried;
in the middle places between the pine forest and the olsa, an oak tree grows with wood of transitional qualities - yellowish, with white sapwood, more elastic than the oak oak, but lower than the olsa oak, and inferior in hardness to both; the bark on the trunk is thick, soft, gray-brown, covered in cracks with a reddish coating, and on the north side with greenish moss; dryness and hollowness of the butt part of the trunk are quite common.

Oak wood is an excellent building and ornamental material: it is used for underwater and land buildings, the construction of underwater and main parts of wooden ships (mainly summer oak) and as cooperage, carriage, machine, furniture, parquet and carpentry timber (winter oak is preferred); The latter especially value bog oak, which has lain in water for a long time (up to a hundred years) and has dark, almost black wood. Suitable for artificial aging (brushing).

Even cannonballs fired from cannonballs could bounce off the sides of the USS Constitution, made of Virginia oak.

Although the heat of combustion of oak wood is higher than that of other wood species in central Russia, complete combustion of oak wood requires a large air draft; oak charcoal does not hold heat well.

Oak is a dioecious, monoecious plant

Loose male inflorescences consist of small, inconspicuous corollas. Drooping catkins appear in April-May, almost simultaneously with the leaves blooming, but only on mature trees. The female flowers are also inconspicuous, they are located singly or several on the peduncle.

Oak serves as a source of cool shade in summer, and its branches are harvested at this time for bath brooms. The leaves are rich in beneficial compounds; their large size allows a lot of healing steam to be pumped into the body, which has antimicrobial, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.

What happens to the oak tree in the fall? 2 Determine the type of oak by its foliage

The leaf blades are rounded with pointed projections that give the leaf its shape. These blades can be compared to fingers. Different types of oak may have either pointed or rounded lobes. Red oaks tend to have sharp lobes. And white oaks have rounded ones.
Between each blade there are indentations that highlight these blades. The recesses can be wide and narrow, deep and shallow.

Look at the sheet carefully. The shape of leaves from one oak tree to another may differ. You may need to look at several leaves from different oak trees to make your classification.

If you cannot determine the species by the leaves, pay attention to the acorns, bark, and geographic location of the tree.
Oak leaves grow in a spiral along the branch, meaning it is rare to see a "flat" branch or branch with parallel leaves, like a palm tree.
Oak branches usually do not grow in a straight line, and leaves do not grow in the opposite direction from the branch. Imagine looking at a fork with all the tines coming from the same point.

Green leaves should be looked for in the summer, red leaves in the fall, and brown leaves in the winter. Most oak leaves remain green throughout the summer, but turn red and brown before they fall.

Oak is one of the most colorful autumn trees. And this is another reason why oak is so popular. Some oak leaves turn red and pink in early spring, but by summer they turn green again.
Generally, oak trees shed their leaves late in the season, and young trees retain their brown leaves until spring. They will shed them as soon as new leaves begin to grow.
Therefore, a tree with dead brown leaves in winter is likely to be an oak. Oak leaves quickly age and turn brown, but they stay on the branch much longer than other leaves. Most often, such leaves can be seen at the base of the oak tree. But on a windy day, leaves can fall off the branch.

To distinguish between white and red oak, watch the fall leaves.

The leaves of white oaks turn reddish-brown as fall approaches, while the leaves of red oaks are characterized by sudden leaf drop. The leaves of red oak are a rich red color, they are very visible against the background of the autumn forest.
Red oaks are often mistakenly confused with maples. Typically maple leaves change color in early fall, but red oak leaves are still green at this time. You can recognize a maple tree by its large, distinctive leaves.

Description of acorns

The fruits are necessary for the spread of the species, although the oak tree also reproduces vegetatively. In landscape design, afforestation, and gardening, the cultivation of seedlings and saplings from acorns is mainly used. Copper trees produce seeds from the age of 20; abundant fruiting of seed specimens most often occurs by the age of 50–60.

A brown oak fruit with longitudinal and transverse markings, the acorn, is a nut. On top it is covered with a shallow, rough, bowl-shaped plush, arising from the reduced outer parts of the flower. The shape of acorns is oblong, length - up to 3.5 cm. The fruits can have a round shape and reach 1.5 cm in diameter.

Reproduction and cultivation

We will conclude the description of oak with a short review of some of the features of its cultivation. Most species of this genus begin to bear fruit at a late age (from 15–30 years). The fruits ripen and fall from August to October, then they can be examined more closely. It is interesting that the acorns of one oak tree differ in shades of color, weight, shape, and the nature of the scales on the plus.

The fruits are collected before the snow falls; if they are dark brown with a glossy color, it means they are fully ripe, healthy and capable of germinating. Oak groves are difficult to renew by seed propagation, because after germination the seedlings take a long time to grow and begin to bear fruit very late.

After collecting acorns, they can be germinated in peat pots throughout the winter, and transplanted into soil or a tub in the spring. A bonsai is formed from oak in the room and on the terrace using soft copper wire. It should be applied to the trunk and branches of the tree in the fall, after the leaves have fallen. Bonsai is a popular trend in indoor floriculture and landscape design, but not every amateur is able to correctly form the trunk and crown. It is necessary to properly prune thick branches in winter and cut off green shoots throughout the year.

Tree height growth rate

Typically, living things, including us, have a period of active growth when they are young, but as they age, growth slows down or stops altogether. The growth rate of trees in height has the same character. After a period of active growth in height, the growth rate of the tree decreases, and it begins to gain weight due to the trunk and side shoots. The figure shows the general nature of the relationship between the height of most trees and its age. The schedule is divided into three phases. 1 is the initial phase of slow growth, followed by a phase of rapid growth - 2. When the tree approaches a certain height, the growth rate drops - phase 3. Of course, time and height values will vary for each individual tree depending on the species and environmental conditions.

The general nature of the dependence of the height of most trees on age

Different types of trees grow at different rates. Depending on the growth rate, trees are usually divided into groups. In tables 1 and 2, trees are divided into groups depending on the tree's growth rate per year. Trees gain such growth rates during the active phase (between the ages of 10 and 30 years).

Very fast growing

Fast growing

Moderately growing

Table 2: Slow-growing trees

Slow growing

Very slow growing

growth 0.25-0.2 m

Siberian cedar pine

Dwarf forms of deciduous trees (Dwarf willows)

Dwarf forms of conifers (Obtuse cypress)