Quercus suber

Cork oak is a medium-sized evergreen oak tree in the Turkey Oak group (Cerris) in the beech or Fagaceae family, native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. It is a dominant tree in much of the Mediterranean region of Europe.

• Leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 4—7 cm long, weakly lobed or coarsely toothed, dark green above, paler beneath, with the leaf margins often curving down.
• Species is monoecious. Males are slender, yellow-green catkins up to 7.5 cm long; females are very small flowers in leaf axils.
• Fruit is a long, narrow, oblong acorn 2—3 cm long, in a deep cup, fringed with elongated scales.
• Buds are broadly triangular and pointed, clustered at the tips of twigs.
• Bark is thick, insulating, perhaps the cork oak's evolutionary way of surviving forest fires. It is widely grown in plantations in Spain and Portugal, harvesting the bark every 8 to 10 years to make the corks for wine bottles. This removing the outer bark does not permanently damage the tree, with the bark growing back.