Oriental Cork Oak, Chinese cork oak
Quercus variabilis

Family: Fagaceae

What it is like

A large deciduous tree. It grows 15-25 m tall. The trunk can be 50-60 cm across or larger. The leaf stalk is 1-3 cm long. The leaf blade is oval or sword shaped and 8-15 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. The base is rounded and there are teeth along the edge. It tapers to the tip. There are 13-18 secondary veins on each side of the main vein. The cup encloses about 2/3 of the nut. The fruit is a nut 1.6-1.9 cm long by 1.3-1.5 cm wide.

There are about 600 Quercus species.

Where it is found

A temperate plant. It is native to China, Japan and Korea. It grows in areas with a temperature range of 15.9-18.5°C and rainfall 1,400 to 1,500 mm per year. It can grow on a range of soils with pH from 4 to 8. It does best on fertile well drained soils. In Vietnam it grows about 800-1,000 m altitude. In China it grows in evergreen and deciduous forest below 3,000 m altitude. It suits hardiness zone 5. Arboretum Tasmania.

Countries/locations it is found in

Asia, Australia, China, Indochina, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, SE Asia, Tasmania, Vietnam

How it is used for food

The seed is edible. The nuts are ground and used to make soy sauce and also for preparing cold pudding.

Edible parts

Seeds, nuts

How it is grown

Plants can be grown from seeds.

Trees do not fruit well every year. Fruit occur most on trees 40-100 years old.

Its other names

Local names

Abe maki, De ban, Koruku kunugi, Pohon pasang cina, Shuan pi li, Wata kunugi

Synonyms

Quercus bungeana F.B. Forbes; Quercus chinensis Bunge (1833) not Abel (1818); Quercus variabilis var. megaphylla T.B.Chao; Quercus variabilis var. pyramidalis T.B.Chao & al.;