Meet me blog - Rick Milsom (Arboricultural Officer)

When I started studying my Arboricultural degree, one of the first questions posed by the tutor in the botany section was ‘Do you know what an oak tree looks like?'. That’s a bit odd I thought, why would I be doing a course like this if I didn’t know what an oak tree looked like?

Surely everybody knows what an oak tree looks like, even if you have never studied arboriculture. I can remember talking about the ‘big acorn tree’ when I was young. I think I was also aware of the great age our native oaks could reach when I used to see them in parks and woodlands. With their investment in old age, our native oaks develop a very durable heartwood. As they age, they may be colonised by fungi which decays the wood and leads to holes and cavities, and as a result the trees then become the host of birds, bats, fungi, insects, pixies and fairies. Many of these associates are rare or endangered and require the habitat an old oak provides.

We have a selection of oak species in Southend-on-Sea, many look very different from each other, many look quite similar. The scientific name for oak is Quercus, anything that starts with Quercus is an oak.

Oaks native to the United Kingdom (U.K.)

We have two native oaks, the pedunculate oak and sessile oak (Quercus petraea). They may be quite similar in appearance, but there are subtle differences. The most obvious being the length of the leaf stalk and the way the acorns are attached. The leaf shape is also different.

The pedunculate oak and sessile oak often hybridise to give rise to Quercus x rosacea. The x in the name of a plant means it is a hybrid. This species will have characteristics of both parents.

North American species

In our parks and streets, we have quite a good number of these. Some of the trees are quite large specimens. They usually grow rather fast and have good autumn colour, either red, orange or in the case of rubra, sometimes brown which can contrast well with other trees which may colour. They are generally trouble free with regard to pests and diseases, but the wood is not as resistant to decay as our native species, so they are not as long lived.

The species you are most likely to see are the scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) and the red oak (Quercus rubra). These trees are quite similar in appearance with both having sharper pointed lobes on the leaves than our native species.

We also have the pin oak (Quercus palustris) but in limited numbers. This looks similar to the red oak and very, very similar to the scarlet oak! As the foliage is also quite variable in size and shape it also adds to the problem of identification

Other species

We still have even more for the avid oak explorer to look at in our City.

The species with the largest leaf in our collection is the Hungarian oak (Quercus frainetto). This a beautiful spreading tree, unfortunately I think we may only have one, even more unfortunately it is not growing very well so more planting is needed.

If I had to bet on ‘which species would win the most surprising species of oak tree we have prize’ it would go to the cork oak I would wager (Quercus suber).

One thing that you may not be surprised to learn about the cork oak though, is we obtain cork from the bark of this tree. Next time you open a nice bottle of red say cheers to the cork oak. The thick corky bark allows the tree to survive forest fires in its native habitat in the Western Mediterranean. Its main concern is not to supply us with corks for wine bottles.

Another interesting tree we have is the Lucombe oak, (Quercus x hispanica ‘Lucombeana’) This is another hybrid, hence that x again. This tree is a hybrid between the Holm oak (Quercus ilex) and the Turkey oak (Quercus cerris).

The parents of Lucombe oak are rather different in appearance to each other, the Holm oak is evergreen and has leaves that are unlobed. The Turkey oak is a fast-growing deciduous tree which has leaves resembling the English oak but are more deeply lobed. The acorn of the Turkey oak sits in a cup which reminds me of a sea urchin so is another little clue to aid identification.

We have a lot of good and unusual trees in the City thanks to the planting of our predecessors in the Parks Department.

We continue to plant many trees each year and try to add to the unusual species we already enjoy.

It would appear there are about 450 species of oak worldwide. I may know what some oak trees look like then, but there are still a lot that I don’t, and if you think I’ve made any mistakes here please don’t tell anybody.

All the trees mentioned can be seen in Progress Road, Blenheim Park, Priory Park, Manners Way outside the shops, Blenheim Chase and Clifftown Parade and many more places besides.