Pendunculate Oak - Quercus robur

Large spreading tree to 45 metres. Leaves oval with rounded lobes, rounded at base with a very short stalk (looking almost stalkless). Bark smooth and silvery brown, becomes rugged and deeply fissured with age. Acorns long stalked. Male and female flowers occur on the same tree. Male flowers are pendulous long slender catkins, yellowish green each flower with 8 to 20 stamens. The female flowers are very small pinkish, and found in the axils of the leaves.1 to 4 surrounded by a close cluster of scales, they develop into the acorns.

Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea) and the hybrid with it (Quercus x rosacea) as well as Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) are all broadly similar. Pedunculate Oak can be distinguished by having leaves without stalks and acorns on long stalks.

Woods, hedgerows and roadsides.

Flowers: April and May.

Deciduous.

Common throughout Britain, especially in lower areas.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 573 of the 617 tetrads.