Quercus hartwissiana

Quercus hartwissiana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fagales
Family:	Fagaceae
Genus:	Quercus
Subgenus:	Quercus subg. Quercus
Section:	Quercus sect. Quercus
Species:	Q. hartwissiana
Binomial name
	Quercus hartwissiana; Steven
Synonyms
	List Quercus armeniaca Kotschy ; Quercus stranjensis Turrill ; Quercus robur var. armeniaca A.DC. ; Quercus hartwissiana var. macrocarpa A.Camus ;

Quercus hartwissiana, the Strandzha oak

Asia Minor along the Black Sea, and the Caucasus. It was described by the Finnish-born Russian botanist and entomologist Christian von Steven

in 1857.

Description

Quercus hartwissiana is a large

leaves are 12 to 14 cm (41⁄2 to 51⁄2 in) long and 7 to 9 cm wide, slightly convex in the base, and have seven to ten pairs of fairly regular, short, rounded to pointed lobes.^[4]

The leaf veins are all directed into the lobes of the leaf, not into the indentations between them. The top of the leaf is bright green, the underside is dull, with a dark brown shading, with fine fleece and somewhat longer reddish hairs along the leaf veins, or in the angles between them.

On a petiole with a length of 2 to 7 cm, there are one to four acorns. Their fruits mature in the first year.^[5] The acorns are 2.5 to 3 cm long and 1.2 to 1.5 cm wide, the fruit cups measure 1.5 cm in length and 2 cm in diameter. The scales of the fruit cup are almost full to the top.^[5]

Epithet

The specific epithet hartwissiana is in honour of Russian botanist Nicolai Anders von Hartwiss.

Distribution

a forest — A *Quercus hartwissiana* habitat in Strandzha Nature Park, Bulgaria

Quercus hartwissiana is found in the

Sorbus torminalis, Quercus pubescens, Quercus cerris, Quercus frainetto, Carpinus orientalis and the shrubs Cistus creticus and Daphne pontica.^[3]

In Russia it occurs in the basin of the

Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria and Adjara; in eastern Georgia it is now known only from Kakheti

.

It always occurs in mixed forests along with other tree species. Quercus hartwissiana prefers warm and humid climate and grows on fresh to moist soil from the lowland to an altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 m (3,900 to 4,900 ft).[1] It is a pre-glacial relict and is considered to be the ancestor of Quercus robur and Quercus petraea.^[3]