Downy oak
Quercus pubescens
Family · Fagaceae · Harmless
The oak of the transition between the Atlantic and Mediterranean worlds, dominating mid-mountain limestone slopes and holding its dry leaves on the branch all winter.
Oak woods · Uplands · Scrubland
Also known aswhite oak, pubescent oak
How to tell it
Leaves with rounded lobes, covered in soft dense down beneath, which is where the name comes from and is felt at once with a finger. The young twigs are downy too. The dry leaves stay on the branch until the following spring. Acorns with a cup of tight scales.
What it is confused with
Portuguese oak
Quercus faginea
Run a finger over the leaf underside: downy oak is soft and felted, Portuguese oak is rough or nearly smooth, with short scattered hairs. And Portuguese oak's lobes often end in a sharp tooth.
Open sheet →What it is for
The acorns fed pigs and, in bad years, people, after leaching out the tannin. Today the value is the woodland itself: downy oak woods are among the richest orchid habitats in the Peninsula.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.