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This interesting Palestine oak is in Acquaviva delle Fonti and grows alone and austere in the centre of the farmyard at “Masseria La Rena” (“La Rena Farm”). It’s an evergreen oak like many other specimens which perfectly fit into several Mediterranean gardens.

Quercus calliprinos

– biology and ecology

The Palestine oak is a very long-lived plant, with a shrubby habit, bushy and irregular foliage, often pruned by nibbling animals. If possible, it shows an arboreal bearing with a very short and twisted stem and a thick and compact crown. In its adult age, it reaches 13-20 ft in height; it is a species native to the Mediterranean Basin, which has also reached the very coastlines of the Black Sea.
The dry Mediterranean scrub with calcareous and stony soil is its preferred living environment, at altitudes ranging from 0 to 984 ft above sea level.
0-300 m a.s.l.

– distribution

Being similar to the holm oak, the Palestine variety can be found along the coastlines of the Black Sea, in southern Portugal, in a large part of central-southern Spain, in southern France and Corsica, as well as in Africa (Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, and Morocco).

– importance and use

In the past, Kermes grains – obtained from scale insect pulverization – were used for dyeing. Palestine oaks are, in fact, often attacked by those parasites.
Those very same grains were also used to make “alchermes” liqueur.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)