Palestine Oak
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| Quercus calliprinos Webb |
The Palestine Oak (Quercus calliprinos) is an oak in the turkey oak section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is native to eastern Mediterranean region and southwest Asia, from northern Algeria and Turkey east across the Middle East.
It is a small to medium-sized tree or large shrub reaching 5-18 m tall (often only 1-3 m tall where heavily browsed by goats) and 1 m trunk diameter. It is evergreen, with spiny-serrated leaves 3-5 cm long and 1.5-3 cm broad. The acorns are 3-4 cm long and 2-3 cm diameter when mature about 18 months after pollination, held in a cup covered in dense, elongated, reflexed scales.
The Palestine Oak is closely related to the Kermes Oak (Q. coccifera) of the western Mediterranean, and is treated as a subspecies or variety of it by some botanists. The Kermes Oak is distinguished from it by its smaller size (usually shrubby, not over 10 m) and smaller acorns less than 2 cm diameter.
