Quercus chrysolepis

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Nut

The seed was a staple food for several native North American Indian peoples. It is typically around 3cm in both length and width, and can reach up to 5cm in both dimensions. It must be cooked before eating and can be dried, ground into a powder, and used as a stew thickener or mixed with cereals for bread-making. Bitter tannins are present and need to be leached out by thoroughly washing the seed in running water, though this also removes some minerals. Either whole seeds or ground powder can be used. Whole seeds may take several days or weeks to leach adequately — placing them in a cloth bag in a running stream is one traditional method. Ground powder leaches more quickly. A simple taste test confirms when tannin levels have dropped sufficiently. Seeds could also be buried in boggy ground over winter; the germinating seed dug up in spring would have shed most of its astringency. The roasted seed is also used as a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It suits hardiness zones 7-10.

Australia, Mexico, North America, USA,

How to Identify

An evergreen tree. It grows 21 m high and spreads 9 m wide. It has a spreading crown. The bark is thick and smooth. It is grey-brown but tinged with red. The leaves are oval and have spiny teeth along the edge. They are downy. The fruit are acorns. They are almost without stalks.

How to Grow

Prefers a good deep fertile loam which can be on the stiff side. 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 slow-growing but long-lived tree in the wild. When killed by forest fires it often resprouts from the roots. Seed production is cyclic, occasional years of high yields being followed by several years of low yields. The tree flowers on new growth produced in spring, the seed ripening in its first year. 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 loses viability quickly if allowed to dry out. It can be stored moist and cool over winter, but is best sown as soon as it ripens in an outdoor seed bed with protection from mice and squirrels. Small quantities can be sown in deep pots in a cold frame. Because plants develop a deep taproot, they should be moved to permanent positions as soon as possible — seed sown in situ produces the best trees. Trees should not be left in a nursery bed for more than two growing seasons, as they transplant very poorly after that point.

Medicinal Uses

Any galls that form on the tree are strongly astringent and have been used in the treatment of haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, and dysentery.

Other Uses

A mulch of leaves helps repel slugs and grubs, though fresh leaves should be avoided as they can inhibit plant growth. Acorn cups soaked in iron-containing water yield a black dye. Oak galls — formed when insect larvae develop within growths on the tree — become a useful tannin source once the insects have left, and the tannin can also serve as a dyestuff. The wood is heavy, hard, tough, very strong, close-grained, compact, and shock-resistant. It is considered the finest western oak timber and has been used for making agricultural implements and wagons. The wood is also an excellent fuel.

Quercus chrysolepis, commonly termed canyon live oak, canyon oak, golden cup oak or maul oak, is a North American species of evergreen oak. Its leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with prominent spines; a further identification arises from the leaves of canyon live oak being geometrically flat. The species is found in Mexico and in the western United States, notably in the California Coast Ranges. It is often found near creeks and drainage swales growing in moist cool microhabitats.

Production

It is slow growing.

Notes

There are about 600 Quercus species.

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