Swamp oak
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Swamp oak ( Quercus palustris ) |
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| Quercus palustris | ||||||||||||
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The Quercus palustris ( Quercus palustris Münchh. ), Also Spree oak , Boulevard oak or nail oak (ger .: "pin oak"), is a plant from the genus of oak trees in the family of the beech plants (Fagaceae) . It is often used as an ornamental plant in parks and avenues in temperate regions .
description
Appearance, bark and leaves
The swamp oak grows as a deciduous tree that reaches heights of about 20 meters and trunk diameter ( breast height diameter BHD) of an average of 28 centimeters in good locations at the age of 30 . In exceptional cases, old specimens reach heights of growth of up to 37 meters and trunk diameters (BHD) of up to 1.5 meters and above. They develop crowns with a diameter of 8 to 20 meters. Marsh oaks are very fast-growing, but are a short-lived species that usually only reaches an age of 80 to 100 years. Single copies can live between 150 and 200 years. The roots of the swamp oak form a shallow heart-root system.
The bark, which is thin for oak species, is pink on the inside and grayish-brown on the outside with wide furrows. The bark of the branches is reddish-brown and becomes bare early. The brown to reddish-brown terminal buds are egg-shaped with a length of 3 to 5 mm; they are bald or have a few fine hairs on the tip.
The alternate and spirally arranged leaves on the branches are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The bald petiole is 20 to 60 mm long. The simple, with a length of 5 to 16 cm and a width of 5 to 12 cm elliptical to elongated leaf blade has five to seven leaf lobes and the leaf edge has 10 to 30 tips. Bald on both leaf surfaces, except for a few groups of woolly hairs on the protruding main nerves on the underside of the leaf. In autumn the leaves turn reddish to scarlet and are therefore very decorative.
Generative characteristics
The flowering time is in spring at the same time as the leaves shoot. The swamp oak is single-sexed ( monoecious ). The male, catkin-shaped inflorescences hang on previous year's twigs in the leaf axils . On this year's shoot, the female flowers are in the leaf axils on a short stem. The female flowers have dark red stigmas. Pollination occurs by the wind.
With a height of 3 to 6 mm and a diameter of 9.5 to 16 mm, the flat bowl -shaped fruit cup (cupula) is hairy on the outside, bald to downy and only covers a quarter of the glans. The bald acorn ( nut fruit ) that remains on the tree over the winter is spherical to ovoid with a length of 1 to 1.6 cm and a diameter of 0.9 to 1.5 cm; it is often clearly streaked. Acorns spread from September to early December in the year following fertilization.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24.
distribution
The swamp oak is native to eastern North America. Their natural range extends from the southwestern New England states west to the extreme southern Ontario, southern Michigan, northern Illinois and Iowa, as well as south to Missouri, eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma, then east to central Arkansas, Tennessee, and central North Carolina Virginia.
Areas of river valleys of the submontane level, which can also be flooded over several weeks, come into question as locations. However, contrary to what the name suggests, wetlands are avoided. The swamp oak thrives well in normal and moderately dry locations.
Systematics
The species name Quercus palustris was first published in 1770 by Otto Freiherr von Münchhausen in Der Hausvater , 5 (1), p. 253.
Quercus palustris forms natural hybrids : Quercus × mutabilis Palmer & Steyerm. (with Quercus shumardii ), Quercus × vaga Palmer & Steyerm. (with Quercus velutina ), Quercus × schochiana Dieck (with Quercus phellos ), Quercus × columnaris Laughlin (with Quercus rubra ) and an unnamed hybrid with Quercus coccinea .
"Renaming to Spree Oak"
In the mid-1990s, the Berlin Senate and then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl decided to plant a few hundred trees in the new Berlin government district . It was decided to use the oak species Quercus palustris . The first specimen of these trees was planted on March 27, 2000 in Paul-Löbe-Allee (near the Reichstag ).
However, since it was feared that the fact that the seat of government is surrounded by swamp oaks could lead to unpleasant puns, this species was quickly renamed. The nearby Spree gave the trees the new name "Spree oak". However, different sources contradict each other on the question of who initiated this designation: The Berlin Senate Administration, Helmut Kohl or the planter of the first tree, Wolfgang Thierse ( President of the Bundestag in 2000 ), while the latter confirmed the first variant.
In the meantime, some tree nurseries and nurseries have also adopted the name "Spree oak" as an additional name for the swamp oak.
swell
- Kevin C. Nixon: Quercus in the Flora of North America , Volume 3, 1997: Quercus palustris - Online. (Section description, distribution and systematics)
- Robert A. McQuilkin: Quercus palustris in Silvics Manual , Volume 2: Hardwoods at USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area . (Section Description, Distribution and Hybrids)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Robert A. McQuilkin: Quercus palustris ( Memento from September 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d Kevin C. Nixon: Quercus in the Flora of North America , Volume 3, 1997: Quercus palustris - Online.
- ↑ Jonathan Caspar Dralle: Hortus onclusus . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 19, 2010 ( pdf ).
- ↑ Harld Olkus: Where swamp oaks became political Spreeeichen . In: Gartenfreund . June 2007, p. 34-36 ( pdf ).
