Pedunculate oak – Quercus pedunculata (Robur L.)
Pedunculate oak and
Quercus pedunculata (Robur L.)
Description of pedunculate oak:
Quercus sessiliflora (Salisb.) (Old or other familiar names: gumwood, swampwood, wolfwood) Beech woods – Fagaceae Oak is the most common and valuable tree in our deciduous forests. It grows to a height of about 40 m and can be up to 7 m in diameter. Its crown is broad, branched and rounded. The bark of the old oak is thick, cracked and ashy grey, while the young branches are still smooth and silvery grey. The leaves are ovally lobed, almost tongue-less, mostly naked; their base is narrowed. Flowers are monoecious, i.e. there are separate male and female flowers on the same tree. Flowering coincides with defoliation. The male flowers form a drooping, loose raceme; the female flowers do not form a raceme, but stand on a 2-7-m-long peduncle. The female flower is surrounded by tiny scales at the base, which eventually fuse together to form a cup-shaped corolla surrounding the base of the acorn. In addition to the oak species described, another common oak is the sessile oak (quercus sessiliflora Sm.), which has leaves with a long stem and sessile, stalkless fruits. Both oaks have many varieties. The oak tree flowers in April-May. The pedunculate oak blooms 14 days earlier than the sessile oak. Its stigma ripens in October.
Occurrence:
Both oak trees form extensive forests in our country and are the main trees of the more hilly and flat woodlands. They are found in all parts of Europe and also in pre-Asia.
The medicinal properties and uses of stem oak:
The young bark of both oaks is used in medicine under the namecortex quercus. The bark of the oak is a strong astringent; the taste is astringent, astringent; it contains 10% tannic acid. The bark of the oak is used internally for vomiting blood, headache, stomach and intestinal bleeding, severe diarrhoea and disorders of the urethral organs. The oak bark is also used to boil for throat lozenges and baths (e.g. for foot sweats). Oak acorn is known in medicine as glandes quercus. The acorn is roasted and used to make the so-called acorn coffee. Acorn coffee is an important medicine for children.
Active ingredients of oak:
In the bark: catechu tannic acid, also quercin, citric acid, cellulose. In the fruit: starch, quercite, meconium, fatty oil, tannic acid, cellulose.
Harvesting:
Oak bark should be harvested in May, at the latest at the beginning of June. For medicinal purposes, only the bark of thin branches and the trunks of young trees (25-30 years old), which are still smooth, can be used. Heavily cracked, potted bark is no longer usable. In the spring, when the tree is still moist, two cross-cuts are made in the live tree and the bark is removed by splitting the tree with one or more longitudinal cuts. The cut bark is dried in the sun and protected from the rain, as it loses its value if it gets wet. The dry oak bark is tubular in shape and has become shrivelled. The bark of oak used as a medicinal product is usually 1 to 4 mm thick, with a brownish-grey outer surface and a light brownish inner surface. Oak bark can only be sold as a medicinal product to a limited extent. The acorns must be harvested in the snow in October, cleaned of the bark and dried in the sun or in a ventilated attic. Both the bark and the acorns are bagged for transport. Source: Béla Páter, The wild herbs Dr. Ferenc Darvas and Dr. Gyula Magyary-Kossa,Domestic medicinal plants, their production, marketing, effects and medicinal uses