Mongolian oak
Quercus mongolica · Fagaceae · 신갈나무
How to spot it
Leaf bases narrow into ear-like shapes, the leaves seem clustered at the twig tips, and the backs of the cup scales bulge out.
Look
- Leaves
- Obovate or long elliptic, 7 to 20 cm long and (3) 5 to 10 cm wide, blunt at the tip and gradually narrowing at the base into ear-like lobes. Margins have wavy, blunt teeth, and there are 3 to 17 pairs of veins.
- Flowers
- Blooms in April to May; the female catkin stands upright at the top.
- Fruit
- The nut is oval, 6 to 25 mm long; the scales of the cup are curved and bulge on the back. It ripens in September to early October.
- Bark
- Bark is dark gray; one-year-old twigs are dark gray-brown.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Also in the Russian Far East and China; found across the Korean Peninsula.
- Ecology
- Grows in mountains at 100 to 1,800 m.