Forest 01 - Quercus suber - Cork Oak

The locals love Forest 1

Date Planted:
1913 & 1920

Origin of the species name:
Quercus is Latin for oak,
suber is Latin for cork.

Other common names:
Portuguese = Sobreiro
Spanish =  Alcornoque


Family: Fagaceae

Height 15m Spread 10m

Surprisingly peaceful for a freeway interchange

Natural Distribution:  The species is native to southwestern Europe and northwestern North Africa.

Natural Habitat: It occurs in open woodlands in areas with cold, moist winters and hot summers, on hills and their lower slopes, generally on acidic soils.

A location favoured by pixies

General Description:  It is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a broad spreading canopy.  It has thick, deeply fissured grey bark.  Its leaves are dark green above and much paler beneath. The acorns are in deep cups that are fringed with scales.  It belongs to the intermediate section of the genus.

The softness of the forest floor is occasionally interrupted

Conservation Status: Although not currently recorded as threatened, cork oak woodlands face an uncertain future. They are subject to land use changes driven by local conditions throughout their natural habitat in North Africa and Europe.  The international importance of the species is highlighted by it being an important target of the gene conservation network of the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme.

Uses: The bark is the world’s major source of cork and has been long used for heat and sound insulation, flooring, floats and bottle corks.  Portugal currently accounts for about 50% of the world cork harvest.

Galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and can be used in the treatment of haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, and dysentery.  The acorns can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickening in stews and the like or mixed with cereals for making bread.

Listen very closely and you can hear the ghosts of merlots future

Forest 1: Established in 1918-1920 with over 2000 trees on 9 hectares to see if the Canberra area was suitable for commercial cork cropping.  The first trees were grown from acorns collected from the Botanic Gardens Melbourne.  A large shipment of young specimens from Spain was lost when the ship carrying them was attacked and sunk.

The first harvest was taken 1947.  The most recent harvest was in 2006 by some contrated Portugese cork oak strippers (yes that's on their resume), and the resultant cork was used in horticulture.  It is estimated that there will probably need to be two or three more harvests before the cork will be dense enough to be used in wine bottles.

Reference: NAC tree descriptions
Further Reading: Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Collins.