| Oak | |
|---|---|
| |
| Foliage and acorns of Quercus robur | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Unranked: | Angiosperms |
| Unranked: | Eudicots |
| Unranked: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Fagaceae |
| Genus: | Quercus L. |
| Species | |
|
See List of Quercus species | |
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of which about 600 species exist on earth. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus. The genus is native to the northern hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cold latitudes to tropical Asia and the Americas.
Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with a lobed margin in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with a smooth margin. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on species. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group and instead are dispersed across the genus.
Classification[]
Oak trees are flowering plants. The genus is divided into two subgenera and a number of sections:
Subgenus Quercus[]
Template:See also The Subgenus Quercus is divided into the following sections:
- Sect. Quercus (synonyms Lepidobalanus and Leucobalanus), the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short; acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter; the inside of an acorn shell is hairless. The leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded.
- Sect. Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long; acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter; the inside of this acorn's shell is hairless. The section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it.
- Sect. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long; acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the acorn's shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp lobe tips, with bristles at the lobe tip.
- Sect. Protobalanus, the Canyon live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States and northwest Mexico. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp lobe tips, with bristles at the lobe tip.
- Sect. Lobatae (synonym Erythrobalanus), the red oaks of North America, Central America and northern South America. Styles long; acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. The actual nut is encased in a thin, clinging, papery skin. Leaves typically have sharp lobe tips, with spiny bristles at the lobe.
Subgenus Cyclobalanopsis[]
- The ring-cupped oaks of eastern and southeastern Asia. Evergreen trees growing 10–40 m tall. They are distinct from subgenus Quercus in that they have acorns with distinctive cups bearing concrescent rings of scales; they commonly also have densely clustered acorns, though this does not apply to all of the species. The Flora of China treats Cyclobalanopsis as a distinct genus, but most taxonomists consider it a subgenus of Quercus. It contains about 150 species. Species of Cyclbalanopsis are common in the evergreen subtropical laurel forests which extend from southern Japan, southern Korea, and Taiwan across southern China and northern Indochina to the eastern Himalayas, in association with trees of genus Castanopsis and the laurel family (Lauraceae).
A hybrid white oak, possibly Quercus stellata × Q. muhlenbergii
Hybridisation[]
Interspecific hybridisation is quite common among oaks, but usually between species within the same section only, and most common in the white oak group (subgenus Quercus, section Quercus; see List of Quercus species). Inter-section hybrids, except between species of sections Quercus and Mesobalanus, are unknown. Recent systematic studies appear to confirm a high tendency of Quercus species to hybridize because of a combination of factors. White oaks are unable to discriminate against pollination by other species in the same section. Because they are wind pollinated and they have weak internal barriers to hybridisation, hybridization produces functional seeds and fertile hybrid offspring.[1] Ecological stresses, especially near habitat margins, can also cause a breakdown of mate recognition as well as a reduction of male function (pollen quantity and quality) in one parent species.[1][2]
Frequent hybridisation among oaks has consequences for oak populations around the world; most notably, hybridization has produced large populations of hybrids with copious amounts of introgression, and the evolution of new species.[3] Frequent hybridisation and high levels of introgression have caused different species in the same populations to share up to 50% of their genetic information.[4] Having high rates of hybridisation and introgression produces genetic data that often does not differentiate between two clearly morphologically distinct species, but instead differentiates populations.[5] Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain how oak species are able to remain morphologically and ecologically distinct with such high levels of gene flow, but the problem is still largely a mystery to botanists.
The Fagaceae, or oak family, is a very slowly evolving clade compared to other angiosperms,[6][7] and the hybridisation patterns in Quercus pose a great challenge to the concept of a species.Template:Citation needed A species is often defined as a group of “actually or potentially interbreeding populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.”[8] By this definition, many species of Quercus would be lumped together according to their geographic and ecological habitat, despite clear distinctions in morphology and, to a large extent, genetic data.