Quercus macranthera

Caucasian species

Fagaceae › Quercus

The Caucasian oak or Persian oak is in the white oak group (Quercus), in the beech or Fagaceae family, and is native to Western Asia (northern Iran, Turkey; and in the Caucasus in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan). It is a large tree, reaching up to 30 m in height.

  • Leaves are deciduous, hard, leathery, obovate-lanciolate to ovate, apex pointed, base cuneate; margin with 8–12 pairs of shallow lobes; lobes are smaller near apex; color is grey-green above, grey, hairy beneath; petiole is 1–2 cm long, pubescent.
  • Male flowers are catkins, 5–8 cm long.
  • Fruit is an ovoid acorn 2.5 cm long, sessile or nearly so, enclosed 1/2 by cup; cup has small, hairy, lanceolate scales; acorn matures in 1 year.
  • Bark is purple-grey, scaly, thick; twigs are orangish-brown, covered in hairs, stout, becoming glabrous; buds are 1–1.5 cm long, dark red brown, hairy at the tips.