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Quercus robur L.

The tree is 18 meters tall and the circumference is of about 3.60.
It hails from an area of Europe which includes Scandinavia and Caucasus; it belongs to the Fagaceae family.
It needs great quantities of water, but it tolerates well stagnation, freezing cold and pollution, while it is sensitive to aridity and high concentrations of limestone in the soil. The isolated specimens can get to 45 m of height an live more than half a century.
In Italy it is present in all the regions but Sicily and Apulia. In Emilia Romagna, together with poplars and white hornbeams, it is one of the main elements of ancient lowland woods.
The wood has a high resistance and it is employed in the building of luxury furniture, pavements or barrels for the ageing of liquors. Acorns are considered excellent to nourish pigs. English oaks are used as symbionts plants for the cultivation of truffles.
Mythological stories tell of men eating human flesh, Jupiter indicated to them acorns of the oak as food source  and from there on they dedicated that day to him and its acorns were named “Albero felice”.

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