Family |
Fagaceae
Quercus calliprinos
L.
Quercus coccifera L.
= Quercus calliprinos Webb
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 131; 1966. First published in Species Plantarum: 995, 1753)
• Life-form & habit: Evergreen shrub or small tree, usually 2–6(–10) m tall, very variable in habit; crown dense, much-branched, forming impenetrable thickets. Bark dark grey, becoming fissured with age.
• Leaves: Thick, coriaceous, evergreen, ovate to elliptic, 2–6 × 1–3 cm, shiny dark green above, paler beneath; margin coarsely serrate to dentate, spinescent; apex acute to mucronate; petiole short.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Monoecious. Male catkins slender, pendulous, yellowish, clustered at branch tips. Female flowers solitary or few, sessile in the leaf axils.
• Fruit: Acorn ovoid, 1–3 cm long, partially enclosed by a scaly cupule with appressed scales. Maturation annual or biennial.
• Phenology: Flowers April–May; acorns ripen September–October of same or following year.
• Habitat & elevation: Mediterranean scrub, maquis, rocky slopes, and open woodlands; tolerant of drought and calcareous soils; sea level to c. 1,400 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Very widespread, forming dense maquis and open woodlands on Mount Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, and coastal hills; abundant around Beirut, Saïda, Tripoli, the Beqaa margin, Jabal Barouk, and northwards to Ehden and Bcharré.
• Native range: Mediterranean Basin and Near East, from Portugal and Morocco eastwards through Greece, Türkiye, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.