Oak tree: description of the plant

The oak tree achieves a diameter of one and a half meters and a height of 40 meters, and its life span is 300-400 years. The oldest representative is the oak, which, according to experts, is given fifteen hundred years.

It is a tree with a cylindrical trunk covered with a silver-gray bark and a spherical wide crown. The plant has shiny shoots of light brown or reddish-gray color, with whitish small lenticles, which with age acquire a light gray color. At the end of the shoot is the apical bud, reaching 5 mm in thickness and 6 mm in length, at the base of which there are several other smaller neighbors.

All buds, which has a petiolate, light brown color with blunt or pointed tips. The leaves of the plant are elongated, obovate, with 6-8 lateral lobes reaching 7 cm long and 4-6 cm wide, with a leathery structure. The color of the foliage on top is dark green, shiny, beneath - green or yellowish. This is a far incomplete description of the oak tree.

Also, the tree has dioecious flowers. Men consist of 6 stamens and membranous perianth, collected in long hanging earrings group of ten pieces, which are located in the lower part of the young shoots or at the ends of last year's shoots. Female flowers sit together on a reddish long stem and consist of a separate perianth bordered with green scales, and the ovary with a filiform marginal stigma.

Acorns - the fruit that the oak leaves resemble, grow to 4 cm in length and 1.2 cm in diameter, have a cylindrical or elongated-ovate shape, covered with a woody, thin skin of brownish-yellow or light-brown color. At the base of the acorns have saucer-shaped plush.

The cherry-like appearance, like the common oak, has spread throughout Europe. The northern boundary of growth passes above St. Petersburg and south of Perm and Vologda. The plant occurs in mixed or pure plantations in two forms (late and early flowing oak), differing in the period of the onset of the phenological phases. The early form of the tree starts flowering in late April-early May. Maturation of acorns occurs in October.

Basically, the oak tree grows in a mixed forest next to ash, hornbeam, maple, less often you can find clean landings (floodplain oak forests).

The early-breaking form of oak is common on humid rich soils, late-breaking prefers elevated areas with less fertile soil. The plant belongs to relatively light-loving breeds, which prefer lateral rearing with top full light. Oak skull refers to xeromesophytes and can be satisfied with a relatively small amount of water. The best plant develops on loamy and sandy loamy soils.

Oak grows with strong, solid wood, which has a beautiful structure, which has found application in carpentry, furniture production, as well as in shipbuilding and car building. The greatest value is wood, which for a long time lay in the ground or under water (black oak). Acorn plants make surrogate coffee, the bark contains up to 18 percent of tanides, it finds application in the medical industry. In addition, oak grating is widely used in afforestation as field protection, in park construction, for greening streets and alley plantings.

Virtually all parts of the plant contain tannins, from which tannic extracts are produced. Acorns contain about 40 percent starch. The bark and oak leaves, which are harvested in spring and summer from young plants, are used as medicinal raw materials for the production of anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and hemostatic drugs.