Quercus agrifolia
| Quercus agrifolia | |
| Light: |   |
| Moisture: |  |
| Hardiness: | 8 |
| Soil pH: | 5.6-8.4 |
| Evergreen | |
| Height: | 49' |
| Width: | 26' |
| Speed: | Slow |
| Blooms: | Mid Spring-Late Spring |
| Open Woods Forest | |
| Native to: | |
| Edible Rating: |  |
| Medicinal Rating: |  |
| Tea: | Yes |
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Quercus agrifolia (common name: encina)
Propagation: Seed - it quickly loses viability if it is allowed to dry out. It can be stored moist and cool overwinter but is best sown as soon as it is ripe in an outdoor seed bed, though it must be protected from mice, squirrels etc. Small quantities of seed can be sown in deep pots in a cold frame. Plants produce a deep taproot and need to be planted out into their permanent positions as soon as possible, in fact seed sown in situ will produce the best trees[1]. Trees should not be left in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons without being moved or they will transplant very badly.
Cultivation: Prefers a good deep fertile loam which can be on the stiff side[2][1]. Plants are lime tolerant[3]. Young plants tolerate reasonable levels of side shade[4]. Tolerates moderate exposure, surviving well but being somewhat stunted[4].
Trees are hardy in Britain if they are not too exposed[2][1], though another report says that they are wind-resistant[5]. Trees grow well in S.W. England[5][6].
Intolerant of root disturbance, trees should be planted in their permanent positions whilst young[1].
A slow-growing but long-lived tree in the wild[7]. Plants only fruit occasionally in Britain[1], though they fruited very heavily at Kew in the hot summer of 1989[K]. The tree flowers on new growth produced in spring, the seed ripening in its first year[4][7].
Hybridizes freely with other members of the genus[4].
This species is notably resistant to honey fungus[8][4].
Range: South-western N. America - California.
Habitat: Forming open groves of great extent in valleys and on not too dry slopes in woods below 1000 metres, it is also found on coastal sand dunes[9][10].
Edibility: Seed - cooked[11][12][13][14][15]. Used as a staple food by several native North American Indian tribes[16]. It can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickening in stews etc or mixed with cereals for making bread. The seed, which is up to 4cm long and 2cm wide[10][7], contains bitter tannins - these can be leached out by thoroughly washing the seed in running water though many minerals will also be lost. Either the whole seed can be used or the seed can be dried and ground it into a powder. It can take several days or even weeks to properly leach whole seeds, one method was to wrap them in a cloth bag and place them in a stream. Leaching the powder is quicker. A simple taste test can tell when the tannin has been leached. The traditional method of preparing the seed was to bury it in boggy ground overwinter. The germinating seed was dug up in the spring when it would have lost most of its astringency.
The roasted seed is a coffee substitute.
Medicinal: Any galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and can be used in the treatment of haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, dysentery etc[17].
A decoction of the chipped bark has been used as a wash on skin sores[16].
Usage: A mulch of the leaves repels slugs, grubs etc, though fresh leaves should not be used as these can inhibit plant growth.
Oak galls are excrescences that are sometimes produced in great numbers on the tree and are caused by the activity of the larvae of different insects. The insects live inside these galls, obtaining their nutrient therein. When the insect pupates and leaves, the gall can be used as a rich source of tannin, that can also be used as a dyestuff[17].
The seed cups are used as buttons[15].
Wood - coarse grained, hard, very heavy, very brittle. It is not exploited commercially as a wood, though it is valued as a fuel[10][7][16].
Pollinators: Wind
Soil: Can grow in medium and heavy soils.
Wind: Tolerates strong winds
In Leaf: Evergreen
Seed Ripens: Mid Fall
Flower Type: Monoecious
Heavy Clay: Grows in heavy-clay soils.
Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Bean, William. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Murray, 1981.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chittendon, Fred. RHS Dictionary of Plants. Oxford University Press, 1951.
- ↑ Brickell, Christopher. The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers. Dorling Kindersley Publishers, 1990.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Huxley, Anthony. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press, 1992.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Arnold-Forster, William. Shrubs for the Milder Counties.
- ↑ Thurston, Edgar. Trees and Shrubs in Cornwall. Cambridge University Press, 1930.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Elias, Thomas. The Complete Trees of North America. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980.
- ↑ RHS. The Garden Volume 112. Royal Horticultural Society, 1987.
- ↑ Munz, David. A California Flora. University of California Press, 1959.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sargent, Charles. Manual of the Trees of North America. Dover, 1965.
- ↑ Hedrick, Ulysses. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications, 1972.
- ↑ Howes, Frank. Nuts. Faber, 1948.
- ↑ Coyle, Jeanette. A Field Guide to the Common and Interesting Plants of Baja California. Natural History Publishing, 1975.
- ↑ Balls, Edward. Early Uses of Californian Plants. University of California Press, 1975.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Saunders, Charles. Edible and Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. Dover Publications, 1976.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Moerman, Daniel. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, 1998.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Grieve, Margaret. A Modern Herbal. Penguin, 1984.