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Quercus cerris L.

The turkey oak is 30 metres tall; its circumference is around 5.70 meters and it was named by the inhabitants the oak with a hundred branches.

It belongs to the family of the Fagaceae and hails from the area of the Mediterranean.

Thanks to a well-developed root system it is able to bare aridity periods. It tolerates limestone, soil compacting and it has no particular needs, but it prefers anyway bitter substrates.

It is possible to find wild Turkey oaks in the Po valley in Italy, where it is likely it has been implanted, and in Friuli, while it is absent in Sardinia. It is spread in all the Appennine ridge, especially from Tuscany down. Turkey oak orchards are highly spread in all the province of Potenza in Basilicata, at an altitude slightly superior to the one of the downy oaks. The wood is different from the one of other oaks, because it does not contain tannin and so is less resistant to humidity and it breaks down easily along the fibres.

The wood was used in the past in order to build railway sleepers, staves for barrels or wheels rays.

Nowadays it is used often as fuel.

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