Description
Quercus coccifera is a shrub less 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall, rarely a small tree, reaching 1–6 metres (3.3–20 ft) tall (a copy recorded to 10 metres (33 ft) in Kouf - Libya) and 50 cm trunk diameter.
It is classified among the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. The styles are long and acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the acorn's shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp lobe tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Quercus coccifera is evergreen, with spiny-serrated coriaceous leaves 1.5–4 cm long and 1–3 cm broad. The acorns are 2–3 cm long and 1.5–2 cm diameter when mature about 18 months after pollination. They are held in a cup covered in dense, elongated, reflexed scales.
The Kermes Oak, Quercus coccifera is a Scrub oak closely related to the Palestine Oak (Quercus calliprinos) of the eastern Mediterranean, with some botanists including the latter in Kermes Oak as a subspecies or variety. The Palestine Oak is distinguished from it by its larger size (more often a tree, up to 18 m) and larger acorns over 2 cm diameter.
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