Quercus stellata

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Nut

The seed, up to 25mm long and 18mm wide, has a sweet flavour and can be eaten raw or cooked. It can be dried and ground into a powder for use as a stew thickener or mixed with cereals for bread. Seeds from some trees may contain bitter tannins, which can be leached out by washing thoroughly in running water, though this also removes many minerals. Either whole seeds or ground powder can be used — whole seeds may take several days or weeks to leach properly, and placing them wrapped in a cloth bag in a stream is one effective method. Leaching powder is quicker. A taste test confirms when tannins have been adequately removed. The traditional preparation involved burying seeds in boggy ground over winter; the germinating seed dug up in spring would have lost most of its astringency. The roasted seed serves as a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It is native to C. and E. United States. It grows in dry soil.

North America, USA,

How to Identify

A deciduous tree. It grows 20 m high. It is a broadly spreading oak tree. The bark is grey-brown and ridged. It is flaky. The leaves are oval and 20 cm long by 10 cm wide. They have 2 or 3 pairs of lobes. They are dark green above and grey and hairy underneath. The male and female flowers occur separately on the same plant. The male flowers are easier to see and are yellow-green in drooping catkins. The fruit is an acorn which is 3 cm long. It is about one third enclosed in a 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 often grow poorly in this country and fail to properly ripen their wood resulting in frost damage overwinter. A slow-growing drought resistant tree, it takes 20 - 30 years before it produces seed. It then usually produces a good crop of seeds every 2 - 4 years. 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 rapidly 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 — seed sown in situ produces the best trees. Trees left in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons transplant very poorly.

Medicinal Uses

The bark is astringent, disinfectant, emetic, febrifuge, and tonic. An infusion is used to treat chronic dysentery, indigestion, asthma, lost voice, and intermittent fevers. The bark can be chewed to treat mouth sores, and an infusion of the bark applied as a wash soothes sore and chapped skin. Galls produced on the tree are strongly astringent and useful in treating haemorrhages, chronic diarrhoea, and dysentery.

Other Uses

A mulch of leaves repels slugs and grubs, though fresh leaves should not be used as they can inhibit plant growth. Oak galls produced by insect larvae are a useful source of tannin once the insect has pupated and left; the tannin can also be used as a dyestuff. The wood is very heavy, hard, close-grained, and very durable in contact with soil, though it is difficult to cure. It weighs about 52lb per cubic foot and is widely used for fencing, lumber, furniture, and fuel.

Quercus stellata, the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges, and also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to rot, fire, and drought. Interbreeding occurs among white oaks, thus many hybrid species combinations occur. It is identifiable by the rounded cross-like shape formed by the leaf lobes and hairy underside of the leaves.

Notes

There are about 600 Quercus species.

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