EVERGREEN OAK

Quercus ilex

( German: STECHEICHE, French: YEUSE )

The Evergreen, Holm, or Holly Oak is a tree that puzzles many folk at first sight, For it looks much like an enormous holly tree. A closer view, however, will show that its leaves, though evergreen, leathery, and dark in hue above, are white and hairy, not green and smooth, beneath; they are never prickly, though sometimes their edges are toothed; and the twigs are downy. The bark too differs, being black on young trunks, and dark grey, shallowly patterned into small squares, on older ones, whereas holly bark is always smooth and pale grey. The dark brown acorns, of course, reveal the helm oak`s true relationship. They are borne in long, hard cups, and are themselves remarkably long and narrow, tapering to a point; they ripen in their first year. The flowers resemble those of the common oak, but the male catkins are greenish-white and rather short-stalked.

The evergreen oak is a characteristic tree of the macchi, or evergreen scrub of the Mediterranean countries, but it is quite hardy in the south and west of Britain. Slow growing, and rather tricky to transplant, it is used sometimes for ornament but mainly as a shelter tree; it stands up very well to strong sea winds. Each leaf endures two years, and there is a heavy fall of tough, brown, leathery leaves in May and June. Seedlings occasionally spring up spontaneously. The sapwood is white, and the heartwood dark brown, very hard, strong, heavy and durable. The timber is valued in its homeland, but too little grows here for it to be marketed.

The main stem is apt to divide, only a few feet above ground level, into several large stems that give the crown a rounded outline, excellent for shelter but poor for timber production. Evergreen oak has become naturalised on the chalk of St. Boniface Down, near Ventnor in the Isle of Wight. There are two Holm Oak trees at Lyminster, near Littlehampton, which are believed to be over 300 years old.

Taken from British Trees by Edlin.

Research Project in Bremen
In February 2000 we sent a small number of Holm Oak acorns to the University of Bremen for the research project on how to protect the Holm Oaks in the South of France from dying out. Unfortunately by February we could only find just a few which the squirrels had spurned. They did get some more from Majorca. Details of the research are as follows:

Growth and mycorrhization of holm oaks (Quercus ilex)
seedlings in different red loam - compost mixtures
The project MedOak

The entire Mediterranean area is affected by an increasing desertification and soil degradation. The main cause is the climate, but apart from that, the impacts of fire become of more and more importance in that respect. By planting with pines (Pinus halepensis) the vegetation can be structured within a rather short time. Due to the dry leaf-litter the fire risk is rather high in such stocks. the project MedOak was brought into existence in order develop techniques to restore the degraded vegetation and soil. The target is to settle the holm oak again which has originally been the predominant tree of this area.
The holm oaks have to be inoculated with a mycorrhizal fungus since they are obligatorily mycotrophic plants which means that they are dependent on the mycorrhizal-sybiosis.
The nutrient concentrations in compost (in particular K+) can be rather high and can prevent the formation of a functioning mycorrhiza or even inhibit the growth of the mycels.
Therefore the proportion of red loam and compost is varied, in order to find the optimal substrate mixture that shows the best growth of plant and mushroom. From preliminary tests it is known that the compost proportion should not exceed 30%, in order not to damage the hyphae of the fungus.

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