| Quercus coccifera Kermes Oak |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Fagaceae |
| Genus: | Quercus |
| Section: | Cerris |
| Species: | Q. coccifera |
| Binomial name | |
| Quercus coccifera L. |
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Quercus coccifera, the Kermes Oak, is an oak in the Turkey oak section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is native to the western Mediterranean region and Northern African Maghreb, from Morocco and Portugal east to Libya and Greece.
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Quercus coccifera is a large shrub, rarely a small tree, reaching 1–6 metres (3.3–20 ft) tall (rarely to 10 metres (33 ft)) and 50 cm trunk diameter. It is evergreen, with spiny-serrated leaves 1.5–4 cm long and 1–3 cm broad. The acorns are 2–3 cm long and 1.5–2 cm diameter when mature about 18 months after pollination. They are held in a cup covered in dense, elongated, reflexed scales.
The Kermes Oak, Quercus coccifera, is closely related to the Palestine Oak (Quercus calliprinos) of the eastern Mediterranean, with some botanists including the latter in Kermes Oak as a subspecies or variety. The Palestine Oak is distinguished from it by its larger size (more often a tree, up to 18 m) and larger acorns over 2 cm diameter.
It is common in Crete and can survive heavy sheep and goat grazing for long periods as a ground carpet a few centimeters high.
The Kermes Oak was historically important as the food plant of the Kermes scale insect, from which a red dye called crimson was obtained.[1] The etymology of the specific name 'coccifera' is related to the production of red cochineal (crimson) dye and derived from a diminutive of Latin coccinus which was from Greek kokkinos (= the kermes bug). The latin -fera means 'bearer'.[2]
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