Quercus faginea, the Portuguese Oak, is a species of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 native to the western Mediterranean region in the Iberian Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 and the Balearic Islands

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

. Similar trees in the Atlas Mountains

Atlas Mountains

The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...

 of northwest Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 are usually included in this species, or sometimes treated as a distinct species Quercus tlemcenensis. It occurs in mountains between 800-1900 metres altitude, and flourishes in a variety of soils and climates.

It is a medium-sized deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 or semi-evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 growing to 20 m tall, with a trunk up to 80 cm diameter, with grey-brown bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

. The tree can live as long as 600 years. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are 4-10 cm long and 1.2-4 cm broad (rarely to 15 cm long and 5 cm broad), glossy dark green to grey-green above, and variably felted grey-white below; the margins have 5-12 pairs of irregular teeth. Leaf fall is typically in mid to late winter. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are catkin

Catkin

A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated but sometimes insect pollinated . They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping...

s, produced between March and April, almost always before Holm Oak

Holm Oak

Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak or Holly Oak is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It takes its name from holm, an ancient name for holly...

, which grows in similar areas. The acorn

Acorn

The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...

s are oblong-ovoid, 2-2.5 cm long, maturing in 6 months to disperse in September or October.

The species commonly develops gall

Gall

Galls or cecidia are outgrowths on the surface of lifeforms caused by invasion by other lifeforms, such as parasites or bacterial infection. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites...

s due to gall wasp

Gall wasp

Gall wasps , also called Gallflies, are a family of the order Hymenoptera and are classified with the Apocrita suborder of wasps in the superfamily Cynipoidea...

 activity; the galls are brown, 1-2 cm diameter, and have a spongy, cork-like interior.

There are two subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

:

• Quercus faginea subsp. faginea. Iberian Peninsula.
• Quercus faginea subsp. broteroi (Cout.) A.Camus (syn. Quercus tlemcenensis). Northwest Africa.

Portuguese Oak also hybridises readily with other related oaks such as Algerian Oak

Algerian Oak

Quercus canariensis, the Algerian Oak or Mirbeck's Oak is an oak in the section Quercus sect. Mesobalanus, native to southern Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco; despite the scientific name, it does not occur naturally today in the Canary Islands, though it may have done in the...

 (Quercus canariensis) and Downy Oak

Downy Oak

Quercus pubescens, the Downy Oak or Pubescent Oak, is an oak in the white oak section of the genus, Quercus sect. Quercus. It is native to southern Europe and southwest Asia, from northern Spain east to the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is also found in France and parts of central...

 (Quercus pubescens), which can make identification difficult.

The scientific name faginea refers to the superficial resemblance of the leaves to those of the beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

 (Fagus).

Uses

The wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 has been used traditionally as firewood and as timber for construction (beams and posts). The acorns, like those of the Cork Oak

Cork Oak

Quercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...

, are an important food for free-range Black Iberian Pig

Black Iberian Pig

The Black Iberian pig, also known in Portugal as Alentejano, is a breed, Mediterraneus, of the domestic pig that is indigenous to the Mediterranean area...

s reared for serrano ham

Jamón serrano

Jamón serrano is a type of jamón , which is generally served raw in thin slices, or occasionally diced. The French jambon de Bayonne and Italian prosciutto crudo are similar...

 production. It is also occasionally planted as an ornamental tree.