Quercus acuta

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds

The seed, about 2cm long, is edible when cooked. It can be dried and ground into a flour to thicken stews or blended with cereals for bread-making. The seed contains bitter tannins that can be removed by thoroughly washing in running water, though this also leaches out minerals. Tannins can be leached from whole seeds or from the dried, ground powder — the powder leaches more quickly. Leaching whole seeds can take several days to several weeks; one traditional method was to wrap them in a cloth bag and leave them in a running stream. A simple taste test confirms when enough tannin has been removed. Another traditional preparation involved burying the seed in boggy ground over winter; the germinating seed dug up in spring would have lost most of its astringency. The roasted seed also makes a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

Temperate. It needs a well drained soil. It can grow in sun or part shade. Melbourne Botanical gardens. It suits hardiness zone 7.

Asia, Australia, China*, Indonesia, Japan*, Korea, SE Asia, Taiwan,

How to Identify

An evergreen tree. It grows 20 m high. The leaves are opposite and narrow. They are oval and 7-20 cm long. The leaf stalk is 2-4 cm long. The male flowers are golden and like catkins. They hang from the tree and are 6-12 cm long. The female flowers are in the axils of the leaves. They point upwards and are in groups of 2-5. The fruit is an acorn. It is 2 cm long.

How to Grow

Prefers a good deep fertile loam which can be on the stiff side. Unsuitable for chalky soils. Young plants tolerate reasonable levels of side shade. Tolerates moderate exposure, surviving well but being somewhat stunted. Prefers warmer summers than are usually experienced in Britain, trees often grow poorly in this country and fail to properly ripen their wood resulting in frost damage overwinter. A very ornamental tree, it grows best in the milder areas of the country. Intolerant of root disturbance, trees should be planted in their permanent positions whilst young. Hybridizes freely with other members of the genus. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus.

Propagation: Seed quickly loses viability if allowed to dry out. It can be stored moist and cool over winter but is best sown as soon as it is ripe in an outdoor seed bed, with protection from mice and squirrels. Small quantities can be sown in deep pots in a cold frame. Plants develop a deep taproot and should be moved to their permanent positions as soon as possible; seed sown in situ produces the best trees. Trees left in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons will transplant very badly.

Medicinal Uses

Any galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and have been used in treating haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, and dysentery.

Other Uses

A mulch of the leaves repels slugs and grubs; fresh leaves should be avoided as they can inhibit plant growth. Oak galls — caused by the larvae of various insects living and feeding inside the growths — are a rich source of tannin once the insect has pupated and left. These galls can also be used as a dyestuff.

Quercus acuta, the Japanese evergreen oak, is an oak native to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China's Guizhou Province and Guangdong Province. It is placed in subgenus Cerris, section Cyclobalanopsis.

Other Information

It is a famine food.

Notes

There are about (300) 600 Quercus species. Almost all acorns have high levels of tannic acid so should therefore be leached and roasted before eating. There are about 150 Quercus in tropical America.

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