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Quercus frainetto Ten.

The tree is 16 meters tall and its circumference is about 6 meters. The Quercus frainetto is hails from the area of the Black See and it belongs to the family of the Fagaceae.

It is sensitive to cold climates with frequent frosts and prefers bitter soils, and grows till 800 meters above the sea level, Thanks to a sturdy and deep rooting system the Quercus frainetto is able to resist short periods of aridity.

In Italy it has many reproductive problems, because it suffers from the presence of other species, a typical behaviour of plants, which find themselves at the edges of their area of diffusion.

It is possible to find it in Tuscany’s Maremma, but it becomes more present from Lazio to Calabria. It gains value inside the “Parco Nazionale dell’Appennino Lucano” on the massif of Monte Volturino in Basilicata. The wood is used like durmast, in order to produce furniture, staves for barrels and naval buildings or railway sleepers. It is good for the production of charcoal and as fuel. In occidental Europe is used as ornamental plant. Michele Tenore called this species Quercus frainetto in 1813, because he considered the tree a Farnia minore, but in the transcriptions a misprint spread the wrong specific name Frainetto.

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