Quercus lyrata

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Nut

The seed must be cooked and measures around 25mm long. Once dried and ground into a powder, it can be used as a thickening agent in stews or mixed with cereals to make bread. The seed is fairly sweet and relatively low in bitter tannins, so little leaching is required. Where bitterness remains, it can be removed by washing the seed thoroughly in running water, though minerals are lost in the process. Both whole seeds and ground powder can be leached — whole seeds may take several days or weeks, and placing them wrapped in a cloth bag in a running stream was a traditional approach. Ground powder leaches more quickly. A taste test confirms when tannins have been sufficiently removed. The traditional preparation method was to bury seeds in boggy ground over winter; the germinating seeds dug up in spring would have shed most of their astringency. The roasted seed serves as a coffee substitute.

Known Hazards

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It grows up to about 150 m altitude in SE regions of the USA. It suits hardiness zones 8-10.

Australia, North America, USA,

How to Identify

A medium sized tree. It grows 18 m tall and spreads 9 m wide. It loses its leaves during the year. It has an open crown and large crooked branches. The leaves are oblong or egg shaped. They have deep, irregular lobes. They are dark green above and paler underneath. The fruit are acorns which are almost stalkless. They are 1.2-2.5 cm long and nearly round. They are almost enclosed by the cup.

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 are not well suited to the British climate and usually grow poorly here. They fail to properly ripen their wood which results in frost damage overwinter. A slow-growing but long-lived tree, it takes 25 - 30 years before it starts to produce seeds. The tree flowers on new growth produced in spring, the seed ripening in its first year. Large crops are produced every 3 - 4 years with low production in the intervening years. 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 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. Because plants develop a deep taproot, they should be moved to their permanent positions as soon as possible — seeds sown in situ produce the best trees. Do not leave trees in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons, as they will transplant very poorly.

Medicinal Uses

The leaves and bark are astringent. Any galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and can be used in the treatment of haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, and dysentery.

Other Uses

A mulch of leaves placed around vulnerable plants repels slugs, grubs, and similar pests. Fresh leaves should not be used as they can inhibit plant growth. Oak galls, produced by the larvae of various insects that feed within them, are a rich source of tannin once the insect has pupated and left, and can also serve as a dyestuff. The wood is close-grained, hard, tough, strong, heavy, and very durable in contact with the ground, weighing 51lb per cubic foot. It is used for construction, tools, and furniture.

Quercus lyrata, the overcup oak, is an oak in the white oak group (Quercus sect. Quercus). The common name, overcup oak, refers to its acorns that are mostly enclosed within the acorn cup. It is native to lowland wetlands in the eastern and south-central United States, in all the coastal states from New Jersey to Texas, inland as far as Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois. There are historical reports of it growing in Iowa, but the species appears to have been extirpated there. It is a slow-growing tree that often takes 25 to 30 years to mature. It has an estimated lifespan of 400 years.

Notes

There are about 600 Quercus species.

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