Korean Oak
Quercus dentata · Fagaceae · 떡갈나무
How to spot it
The largest leaves in the beech family, stout new twigs densely covered with yellowish-brown star-shaped hairs, and long, recurved cup scales.
Look
- Leaves
- Leathery obovate leaves 5 to 42 cm long (usually 9 to 22 cm) and 3.5 to 27 cm wide (usually 5 to 17 cm), with large tooth-like lobes and 3 to 17 pairs of lateral veins. The brown star-shaped hairs on both sides wear off but remain on the underside until the end, and the leaf stalk is short at 1 to 16 mm. It has the largest leaves of any tree in the beech family.
- Flowers
- Flowers open in May. Male catkins hang down from leaf axils, and female catkins stand upright from above.
- Fruit
- The nut is long-elliptic, 10 to 27 mm long, deeply enclosed in a hemispherical cup whose scales are long and recurved. It ripens in October.
- Bark
- Gray-brown bark, deeply cracked. One-year-old twigs are stout and densely covered with yellowish-brown star-shaped hairs.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Also found in the Russian Far East, Japan, Taiwan, China and Mongolia; in Korea it grows in mountains below 800 m elevation across the peninsula and is common in Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-teukbyeoljachi-do and Hwanghae-do.
- Ecology
- Grows on sunny mountain foothills, and does well from mid-slopes down to the seashore. It resprouts from the stump, so as a sun-loving tree it does well in places with frequent wildfire; it is strongly salt tolerant and grows well even in dry places.