Quercus phillyreoides

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Nuts

The seed, up to 2cm long, must be cooked before eating. It can be dried and ground into a powder to thicken stews or mixed with cereals for bread-making. Bitter tannins in the seed can be leached out by thoroughly washing in running water, though this also removes minerals. Either whole seeds or ground powder can be used — whole seeds may take several days or weeks to leach properly, and a traditional method was to place them in a cloth bag in a running stream. Ground powder leaches more quickly. A simple taste test confirms when sufficient tannin has been removed. Traditionally, seeds were buried in boggy ground over winter and dug up in spring, by which point most astringency had faded. The roasted seed also makes a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It is native to China and Japan. It grows on cliffs and rocky places. In China it grows in mixed forests between 300-1200 m altitude. It suits hardiness zone 7. In Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

Asia, Canada, China, Japan*, Korea, North America,

How to Identify

A shrub or tree. It grows up to 10 m tall. It keeps its leaves throughout the year. The small branches are slender, greyish brown and hairy. The leaf stalk is 3-5 mm. The leaf blade is green and oval. It is 2-6 cm long by 1.5-3 cm wide. The base is rounded or heart shaped. The edges have teeth. The tip can be sharp. There are 8-13 secondary veins on each side of the main vein. The female flowering stalk is 1-4 cm long. The cup encloses about 1/2 or the nut. The nut is oval and 1-2 cm long by 0.5-1 cm wide. The cup is like an upside-down cone.

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. Rarely fruits well in Britain. Trees at Kew in the hot summer of 1989 carried large crops of seed. The seed takes 2 years to ripen. A very ornamental plant. 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 early, they should be moved to permanent positions as soon as possible — seeds sown in situ produce the best trees. Trees left in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons transplant very badly.

Medicinal Uses

Galls produced 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 placed around plants repels slugs and grubs, though fresh leaves should not be used as they can inhibit plant growth. Oak galls, produced by insect larvae living and feeding within the growths, are a rich source of tannin once the insects have pupated and departed, and can also be used as a dyestuff.

Quercus phillyreoides is a species of flowering plant in the genus Quercus, placed in subgenus Cerris and section Ilex. It is evergreen, withstands frost and can be grown in hardiness zone 7. It is native to southern China, the Ryukyu Islands, and Japan, and has been introduced to Korea.

Notes

There are about 600 Quercus species.

More from Fagaceae

Castanea alnifolia

Bush chinkapin, Florida chinkapin, Trailing chinkapin, Downy chinquapin

Castanea crenata

Japanese chestnut

Castanea dentata

American chestnut, American sweet chestnut

Castanea henryi

Zhui li, Conic chestnut

Castanea mollissima

Chinese chestnut

Castanea ozarkensis

Ozark chinkapin, Ozark chestnut