Newsletter: Learning your Andalusian oaks

I had the chance to guide the Irish Tree Society last spring (report, here) in the Serranía de Ronda and Grazalema. This was the perfect occasion to improve my knowledge on Pinus and Quercus species.

Online tools to identify trees in Andalucía: Flora Iberica and ArbolApp.

Among oaks, Portuguese (Q. faginea) and Andalusian (Q. canariensis) are most difficult. Let’s first state that not one single character works on its own, that various leaves must be studied, and comparison implies leaves of similar generation.

Andalusian oaks (with its silly scientific name for an Ibero-maghrebian endemic) thrives in a more moist environment and possesses bigger and more undulate leaves. 

Leaf undersides are key, with loose and falling out (when rubbed) hairs; with central vein more sparsely covered by hairs than the rest of the underside.