Great Oak trees of Lizarraga near Pamplona

Near the tiny little town of Lizarraga near Pamplona, Spain there is a stand of great old Oak trees the largest of which is called "the Great Oak of Lizarraga". This stand of trees belong to the "white oak" section of the genus are are called "Downy Oaks" or "Pubescent Oaks" (Quercus pubescens).
There are only about 30-40 of the very large old oaks left in this stand and the largest of them is the one in the picture above. The sign below is located right in front of the tree. One curios piece of trivia about these trees is that according to the sign the land used to belong to Saint Fransis Xavier. Another interesting detail is that these oaks stand around the site of the ruins of a midieval town by the name of "Santa Constanza".

The trunk of the great Oak at Lizarraga has a circumferance of 7.54 metes and stands 17 meters tall. It is still quite healthy and does not have a hollow trunk like many other old oaks.
The picture below shows part of the stand of old oaks as seen from the ruins of Santa Constanza.
The image below is of the little town of Lizarraga (a Basque name that means "place where the Ash trees grow" which is somewhat odd since I only saw one Ash tree but the whole hillside is covered with oaks). The trail from this little town to the stand of old oaks is pretty will marked and takes about 20-25 minutes to walk. The whole trial is a loop which takes over an hour. Lizarraga is about a 20 minute drive south of Pamplona which itself is located in northern Spain.

The Great Oaks of Jauntsarats, Navarra

In the small town of Jauntsarats, Navarra there are several of the largest Oak trees of the Iberian peninsula. Navarra is an autonomous region in the north of Spain. Juantsarats is a very small town with a walking path (1.8 km) that leads visitors to various mightly, old Oak trees. The image above is of the largest Oak along the path. A sign by the tree gives it the name "Roble Kisulabe-ko Haritza". "Roble" is the Spanish word for "Oak". "Haritza" is the Basque word for Oak but I don´t know the meaning of "Kisulabe-ko" although I am pretty sure it is a Basque word as well.
This Great Oak of Jauntsarats has a trunk diameter of 3.53 meters and circumferance of 10.1 meters (at 1.5 meters off the ground). It´s crown is 12.2 metets accross and the tree is 11.6 meters tall. This aged giant is slowely dying of old age, it is likely more than 500 years old. Below is a picture of the sign showing the pathway to see the great trees.

The second largest of the great oaks is not as stout but stands considerably taller. At 1.5 meters off the ground its diameter is 2.75 meters and its circumferance is 8.7 meters. This Oak stands 29.1 meters tall. The image below does not show it but this tree has a large hollow on the other side.

Both of these large Oaks are of the Oak tree species Quercus robur which is commonly known as Pedunculate Oak.

Swearing in cerimony under the Oak of Guernica

The video below is of the swearing in ceremony for the "lehendakari" (term referring to the president of Basque Country which literally means "the first one"). The second half of the video (starting at about 2:30 minutes into the video) shows a swearing in ceremony under the Oak tree of Guernica (also spelled Gernika).



The image below is of the coat of arms for the Gernika-Lumo municipality with the Oak tree front and center. There is a strong link between the governance of the Basque Country and the symbolic tree.

For many centuries local councils would meet under special trees to make regional decisions. Over time these local councils gave way to just one council that meet under the tree in Guernica. By 1512 this one tree and its council came to represent the Basque people as a whole. Obviously these oak trees do not last forever but according to tradition new trees are planted from the acorns of the tree that preceded it.

One can only imagine the horror that the Basque people must have felt when in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War the town of Guernica was bombed by the German Condor Legion in support of General Franco. The tree survived the attack but died later of a fungus. The current tree has only been growing since 1986 and was re-located to the site of the original tree in 2005.

Below is the coat of arms for the Basque province of Biscay also with the tree front and center with the shape of a cross in the background and with an oak wreath around the edge.


Oak trees and oak leaves are found on many other symbols representing the Basque people and their ancient culture.

Candler Oak - Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

The Candler Oak is a large old "Live Oak" (species: Quercus virginiana) located in Savannah, Georgia.

The newspaper image below is from Harper´s Weekly, January 14, 1865 when General Sherman captured Savannah. I´m not sure but I believe that the tree in the images is the Candler Oak.

The History of the Chandler Oak tree

• 1730 Candler Live oak starts to grow (approx. date)
• 1791 Georgia State Legislature grants land surrounding the mighty oak to be used for a seaman’s hospital
• 1803 hospital constructed and and remains in use until 1818.
• 1819 construction of the Savannah Poor House and Hospital on the land
• 1854 Hospital converted into the headquarters for the Medical College of Georgia.
  
• 1861 the hospital was used by the Confederacy during the Civil War.
• 1864 General Sherman captures Savannah and uses the hospital to treat his own soldiers and constructed a barricade around the tree to house wounded Confederate prisoners.
• 1930 site returned to service as the Warren A. Candler Hospital.
• 1980 Huntingdon II, Ltd. purchased the building where community health care organizations continued to operate until 2000.
• 1982 first preservation project of Savannah Tree Foundation initiated to save this historic tree which was under considerable stress and was not expected to survive more than another 20 years.
• 1984 A 6,804 square foot easement was established to protect the Candler Oak, which made history by being the first conservation easement on a single tree in the nation.
• 1985 asphalt was removed from the root area to revive the tree and a comprehensive schedule of maintenance.
• 2001 Candler Oak designated a Georgia Landmark and Historic Tree by the Georgia Urban Forest Council.
• 2004 Candler Oak nominated to the National Register of Historic Trees by American Forests
  

(information taken from http://www.savannahoffthebeatenpath.com/Tours/candler_oak.htm)

According to the sign at the site of the tree the Candler Oak is estimated to be 270 years old, have a spread of 107 feet, a circumference of 16 feet and a height of 50 feet.

Red-Pea Galls on Quercus pyrenaica Oaks

This is a collection of images of Red Pea Galls taken from one Quercus pyrenaica tree (In English this tree is called the Pyrenean Oak although in fact this species is not hardly found at all in the Pyrenees mountains but rather in central and southern Spain. All these images were taken on the same day and depict the galls in their stage of formation. Another name for these is Red Currant Galls. In a previous post I have blogged about the "Apple Galls" associated with the Pyrenean Oak as well.

I found these pea sized galls on a tree in the Spanish region of Extremadura in the province of Cacares near the small town of Logrosan. I was a bit puzzled at first because the galls did not look anything like the apple galls or the marble galls that I am familiar with. I knew that some galls formed on the reverse side of some Oak leaves but on these trees there were numerous galls on the tree flower. The image below is of a cluster of these galls that formed on a flower and continued to form even after the flower had released most of its polen.

Suspecting that they were galls I cut one of the larger ones open and found the larvae of what I believe is the Cynips divisa wasp inside. See image below. I also collected a few and placed them in a jar to see if I can get a look at what the wasp looks like when it emerges from the gall.

The images below are of these same galls when they form on the undersides of the leaves.

Sessile or Welsh Oak - Quercus petraea

The Sessile Oak (species: Quercus petraea) also goes by the common names Welsh Oak or Durmast Oak. The name "sessile" comes from the fact that the acorn is attached directly to the branch without a stem. The common name "Welsh Oak" is used in Wales where it is the national tree. I´m not sure where the "Durmast" name comes from other than that it can refer to several oak species and might be a reference to the dark colored acorn.

The leaves of the Sessile Oak are about 5-7 inches long with lobes that are not too deeply indented and that tapper back towards the stem which is less than one inch long. As you can see in the image above they turn yellow and then brown. I saw one tree that had a reddish tone to it.
The images in this post where taken near Basel, Switzerland where this tree species is quite common. When grown out in the open this tree can form a roundish shape but in the forrest where it has to compete for light it tends to grow quite tall and has a long, straight trunk (image below). This characteristic makes it a valuable timber wood that is both tough and somewhat elastic. Historically is was used for ship building and for wine barrels.

This tree is similar to the Pedunculate Oak (Quercus Robur). One differnce between the two is that the acorn on the Pedunculate Oak is not "Sessile" and has a short stem.

Image above is of the reverse side of the Sessile oak leave. Image below is the top side of the Sessile Oak leaf.
The image below is the bark texture of the Quercus patraea. In Southern Germany, Eastern France and in Switzerland these Oak trees grow in forests along with the European Beech and several maple species.



I´m not totally sure but I believe that the German 1, 2 and 5 cent Euro coins have the Sessile Oak leaf and acorn on the national side. The shape of the leaf matches but I have not seen any article to back this theory up. If you know please leave a comment.









For more Oak tree species check out the Cork Oak, the Holm Oak, the Portuguese Oak, and the English Oak, Pyrenean Oak or White Oak.

Pyrenean Oak "Apple" Galls

The Pyrenean Oak tree (Quercus pyrenaica) is one of the Oak trees that produce "apple" Galls. Galls are round balls (with little horn like bumps - see above), about an inch and a quarter in diameter that "grow" on the new branch growth. There are not, however, a natural part of the tree but rather are the result of the trees defense mechanism against foreign objects.
The galls grow when a wasp lands on the soft bark of a new branch and deposites an egg (or mabye sevaral) into the branch. The tree sensing a foreign object isolates the egg by growing a ball that serves to keep the insect out of the branch. In the picture above you can see both the inside of the gall and a small wasp larvae (at the tip of the knife).

The gall then serves as a protective environment for the wasp larvae as well as a source of food until it is ready to bore its way out of the galls hard outer shell and fly away. The image above shows several of these holes.

The galls on this tree species grow occur in different sizes and some of them do not have the horn like bumps. I´m not sure if these are produced as the result of different insects or not.

The leaves of these trees also seem to have a gall-like defensive mechanism as can be seen in the image above.

Another Oak tree in Spain that produces galls is the Portuguese Oak.

Pyrenean Oak - Quercus pyrenaica (Melojo)

The Pyrenean Oak (sp: Quercus pyrenaica) is an oak tree species that is native to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). It tends to grow in clusters of small trees (clonal colonies) which are produced by this trees tendency to continually send up new stems from its base and root system. It is also common to see small forests of these trees where the individual trees are no more than 3-6 inches in diameter and only about 20 feet tall.

The leaves of the Pyrenean oak are deeply lobed and measure about 4-5 inches in length with smooth margins. The acorns are about 1 1/8 inches long when mature and are somewhat oblong in shape. The image below is of a new acorn forming.

These trees are quite a sight in the fall when the leaves turn yellow and then brown. Unlike some other species the leaves of this tree do not tend to drop in the fall but hang on well into the winter during which they are blown off by the wind.

Some of the leaves will still be on the tree when the new leaves form in the Spring. Like some of the other oak species in Spain the Quercus pyrenaica produces "galls" as a defense mechanism against certain wasps who lay their eggs into its bark.

Although this tree is normally not very big sometimes in good conditions it can reach considerable size like the trees in the image below.

Some other Oak tree species in Spain are the Cork Oak, the Holm Oak, the Portuguese Oak, and the English Oak.

Melojo is one of the Spanish names for this tree.

Oregon White Oak - Quercus garryana

On a recent trip to the Northwest I came across the Oregon White Oak tree (Quercus garryana - this species name is similar to its other common name "Garry Oak" Quercus=Oak and garryana=garry). The trees in these images are located on the west side of Portland just off of highway 26 along NW 167 Place near the NW Cornell Road exit. I also saw quite a few of them driving further west on the Sunset highway heading towards the coast from Portland until they petered out by the coastal range.

The acorns of the Oregon White Oak are quite round in shape and almost one inch in diameter.

I also found that on the mature trees there was a lot of dark green moss growing on the top side of the branches. This coupled with the fact that bunches of leaves grow along the length of the branches give the Quercus garryana a distinct look that sets it apart from other oak trees in the area.

The trunk of the tree in the image below must have been close to four feet in diameter. The tree in the top image of this post may have been even bigger at the base.


The leaves of these oak trees were about 4-5 inches long and 2-3 inches wide. Their texture was a bit rough like a fine grain sandpaper. The lobes were quite rounded

Across the road from these trees there was a line of Northern Red Oaks that were already turning color but these Oregon White Oaks were not showing any sign of changing color yet.

The habitat of the Quercus garryana stretches from north to south all the way from B.C. down to Southern California. In Washington State this is the only oak tree species that grows native.

"La Encina" Oak of the Spanish Plains

This is a follow-up to a post I wrote back in January about the Holm Oak (Quercus Ilex) that I will refer to here by its Spanish name "La Encina". After having lived in Spain for almost ten years I have come to the conclusion that this is probably the second most common and important tree in Spain after the Olive tree. The primary reason for its importance, as I mentioned in my earlier post, is that it is a source of acorns for the Iberian pig from which a number of very important meat products are made from. The image above is typical of the countryside in the region of Extremadura within the province of Cáceres. All of the trees in the picture are Encinas.

These images (above and below) are from a small Iberian pig farm. These pigs are fairly small and quite dark in color. Being allowed to forage over a fairly large area helps keep them lean. Before the Encina Oaks acorns are in season these pigs are fed melon rinds and various types of grains. When the acorns are in season that feed almost exclusively on the flavorful fruits of the Enicna Oak (the Cork Oak, English Oak and Portuguese Oak are also sources of acorns for these pigs). The slaughter of these pigs for making Jamon Serrano (cured ham) and other meat products is in November-December right after the end of the acorn season.

The Jamon Serrano that is made for these black hoofed Iberian pigs is Spain´s most prized product. Some other meat products that are made from these pigs are Chorizo, Lomo and Paleta. The "Jamon Serrano" is the whole hind leg that has been carefully cured under special conditions in the same way that it been prepared for hundreds of years. The "Paleta" is the foreleg and is less valued (and thus cheaper).

The image below is of a rather large, three trunked, Encina Oak in Extremadura.