Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Quercus robur

Common name

English Oak, Pedunculate Oak, Common European Oak

Family

Fagaceae

Where found

Forest, shrubland, and roadsides. Mainly Sydney area south to Tahmoor and west towards Bathurst. Occasionally elsewhere. Doubtfully naturalised in the ACT, though planted as a street tree in older suburbs of Canberra.

Notes

Introduced deciduous tree to 20 m or more tall; branches wide-spreading. Bark grey, hard, furrowed. Twigs hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2–18 cm long, 15–90 mm wide, with 3–7 shallow, rarely deep, rounded lobes on each side, variable in size, shape and colour, upper surface mid-green, hairless, or occasionally a few hairs near the base along the midvein; lower surface grey-green, hairless or with a few hairs on the midrib, bases usually auriculate. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers small, with 0 petals, appearing before the leaves. Male flowers in pendulous catkins 30–90 mm long; female flower clusters producing 1-3 acorns. Flowering: Spring. Nuts (acorns) brown, 2–4 cm long.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Quercus~robur (accessed 4 April 2021)

NZflora description:  http://www.nzflora.info/factsheet/Taxon/Quercus-robur.html (accessed 4 April 2021)