Quercus canariensis is a species of evergreen broadleaf flowering plants (in the Fagaceae or Beech family), native to the southern Iberian Peninsula and north-west Africa.
Quercus canariensis is a species of evergreen broadleaf flowering plants (in the Fagaceae or Beech family), native to the southern Iberian Peninsula and north-west Africa. It is a medium-sized to large tree of 20–30 metres, and up to 35 metres in Algeria. Its bark is grey-brown and rugged, with many fissures that are irregularly arranged but predominantly vertical, similar to other oak species.
Quercus canariensis bears leaves all year, being most sparsely arrayed in early spring. When new leaves open in spring they are light yellow-green. They soon become darker, but remain slightly glossy; some of them turn brown later in the year, before falling. They are fairly large and broad, roughly oval, with six to a dozen rounded shallow lobes on each side, and veins running forwards to the the lobes from the central axis. It has strings of catkins in spring, and grows acorns in cups, turning brown in autumn, similar to those of Quercus robur, the common oak
Quercus canariensis grows naturally in moist well-drained humid forests. In its native range it is a tree of ecological importance, and was an important source of timber for ship-building in Spain and Portugal in past centuries. As well as in Britain, it is widely cultivated in Australia and New Zealand. Despite its scientific specific name, it is not native in the Canary Islands. The International Oak Society provides an article with further information about this species.
See close-up photos of this species
This photo is one of 9407 photos of 877 trees in 334 species
This website is a virtual arboretum, created for interest, education and beauty. It exhibits some of the thousands of trees, of both native and exotic species, that grow in Whiteknights Park, the main campus of the University of Reading. Many of them have been planted since the university arrived in 1947, but some have been here since the 19th century or earlier, when Whiteknights was the gardens and parkland of large houses. More than a hundred of the trees are listed in The Tree Register, nine as British Isles champions (the largest or tallest of their species).
Please send any comments about this website to whiteknights-trees@reading.ac.uk.
The previous version of this website is here.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank: Rupert Taylor, Owen Johnson, Alastair Culham, Jonathan Mitchley, Jordan Bilsborrow, Marcus Wheeler, Benoît Vannière, Miguel Teixeira and Claire Hawkins for tree identifications; Brian Hunt and Trevor Smith for testing routes and contributing text; Dylan Parkes, Martin Watts, Emilija Rudzinskaite, Brian and Trevor for collaboration on the centenary project; Dan Hodson for useful code examples; Studio Lift for website style; Brian, Trevor and Nathanaël van Twillert for comments and suggestions on website user experience; Benoît, Marcus, Steve George, Mark Wrightham, Brian, Trevor, the Friends of the University of Reading, and other friends for their encouragement during the development of the website; the University and its grounds staff for maintaining Whiteknights Park.



