Quercus coccifera L.
Q. pseudococcifera Desf., incl. Q. calliprinos auct. non Webb
Eng.: Kermes oak. Spa.: Coscoja. Fre.: Chêne kermès, chêne coccifère, garouille. Ara.: Ballutt el haluf. Tam.: Kharkhacha, kherkhach, kerruch el kermès, karmis, korrich, kecherid, kechrit, qermez.
Evergreen shrub or tree, monoecious. Frequently shrubby and highly branched from the base, tangled, reaching up to 20 m in height as a tree. Trunk with ashen and smooth bark, brown-blackish and slightly fissured in older tree specimens. Shape of the tree is similar to that of Quercus rotundifolia, with which it has sometimes been confused. Leaves [1.5-6 (13) × 0.8-3.5(7) cm], alternate, perennial, coriaceous, oblong to elliptic or obovate, usually dentate-spiny, but not prickly or even without teeth, with entire margin in good soil, shade and moisture conditions, deep green, bright, ± the same on both sides, almost concolourous, when adult glabrous or slightly glabrescent, pubescent on the underside. Male flowers minute, arranged in catkins about 5 cm long, yellowish. Female flowers borne singly or grouped in 2-3 on the leaf axils. Fruit (the acorn) an elongated-ovoid achene, with a dark chestnut-brown nut, surrounded at the base by a cupule covered in tiny scales, imbricated, ovate-lanceolate, applied on the base and protruding, rigid and prickly on the upper and middle parts.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
Annual or biennial, i.e. late summer-autumn of the following year.
Habitat:
On all types of substrate, from almost sea level (coastal dunes) to 1,200 m. In semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa, it is restricted to the northern area, from the Tingitana Peninsula (NW Morocco) to the Cap Bon (NE of Tunisia) and the Akhdar Massif (NE Libya). Towards the S reaching to the Tazekka Massif, in Morocco, and to Jebel Amour in Algeria (Saharan Atlas).
Observations:
Polymorphic species of which several varieties, forms and some subspecies have been described. The Kermes oak, considered mainly a shrubby species, is almost always a tree in North Africa in favourable environmental conditions. This is clearly seen in many Rif morabouts, where trees 10-20 m in height or even taller are common. The morphological and size diversity in this group has meant that large trees in Algeria, Tunisia and especially in Libya as well as in the rest of the eastern Mediterranean, have been sometimes named as Q. calliprinos. For some authors (Le Floc’h et al., 2010) the large trees of the western North Africa belong to Q. coccifera subsp. pseudoccocifera (Desf.) Arcang. (Q. pseudococcifera Desf.), questioning the presence of the type subspecies of Q. coccifera, at least in Algeria and Tunisia. The latter is regarded by some authors to be restricted to the Iberian Peninsula, and consider specimens from Italy and Libya towards the E as Q. calliprinos.
Like all the species of the genus Quercus, the Kermes oak produces galls to protect itself from insect attacks. But the galls are very peculiar in this species, since the hemipterous insect that causes them is the Kermococcus vermilio (Kermes vermilio, K. ilicis, Coccus ilicis), a cochineal that produces a natural dye, which is extracted from the female bodies of these insects; the dye was widely used in the past to obtain crimson red colour of the best quality. It was used to dye the gowns of the most prominent men in Ancient Rome (toga picta, toca triumphalis) and in other Mediterranean cultures. This treasured cochineal was called coccum or kermes by the ancients, and that word, added to the Latin verb fero (to bring, to carry) formed the name of the plant where these valuable insects live: coccifera.
Conservation status:
A common and widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.