XXX International Oaks The Journal of the International Oak Society …the hybrid oak that time forgot, oak-rod baskets, pros and cons of grafting… Issue No. 25/ 2014 / ISSN 1941-2061 1 International Oaks The Journal of the International Oak Society … the hybrid oak that time forgot, oak-rod baskets, pros and cons of grafting… Issue No. 25/ 2014 / ISSN 1941-2061 International Oak Society Officers and Board of Directors 2012-2015 Officers President Béatrice Chassé (France) Vice-President Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Belgium) Secretary Gert Fortgens (The Netherlands) Treasurer James E. Hitz (USA) Board of Directors Editorial Committee Membership Director Chairman Emily Griswold (USA) Béatrice Chassé Tour Director Members Shaun Haddock (France) Roderick Cameron International Oaks Allen Coombes Editor Béatrice Chassé Shaun Haddock Co-Editor Allen Coombes (Mexico) Eike Jablonski (Luxemburg) Oak News & Notes Ryan Russell Editor Ryan Russell (USA) Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven International Editor Roderick Cameron (Uruguay) Website Administrator Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven For contributions to International Oaks contact Béatrice Chassé [email protected] or [email protected] 0033553621353 Les Pouyouleix 24800 St.-Jory-de-Chalais France Author’s guidelines for submissions can be found at http://www.internationaloaksociety.org/content/author-guidelines-journal-ios © 2014 International Oak Society Text, figures, and photographs © of individual authors and photographers. Graphic design: Marie-Paule Thuaud / www.lecentrecreatifducoin.com Photos. Cover: Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Quercus macrocalyx Hickel & A. Camus); p. 6: Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven (Q. oxyodon Miq.); p. 7: Béatrice Chassé (Q. acerifolia (E.J. Palmer) Stoynoff & W. J. Hess); p. 9: Eike Jablonski (Q. ithaburensis subsp. macrolepis (Kotschy) Hedge & Yalt.). www.internationaloaksociety.org Join the International Oak Society today! 4 Table of Contents —⁄ 07 ⁄— Foreword You Reap What You Sow (But Not Always) Allen Coombes —⁄ 09 ⁄— From the Editor Sugar and Spice Béatrice Chassé —⁄ 11 ⁄— Update Thoughts in Purple and Blue Shaun Haddock —⁄ 13 ⁄— Creating Sustainable Income From the Ancient Oak Forest on Kea Island, Greece Marcie Mayer Maroulis —⁄ 23 ⁄— Searching for the Hardy Southern Live Oak Anthony S. Aiello and Michael S. Dosmann —⁄ 35 ⁄— The Hybrid Oak That Time Forgot: Quercus ×coutinhoi Samp. Discovered in Australia Charlie Buttigieg —⁄ 43 ⁄— Sudden Oak Death, Phytophthora ramorum: a Persistent Threat to Oaks and Other Tree Species Susan J. Frankel and Katharine M. Palmieri —⁄ 57 ⁄— Diversity Within Oaks Kiran Bargali, Beena Joshi, S.S. Bargali, and S.P. Singh —⁄ 71 ⁄— The Mirbeck Oak in Iberia: Source of an Inspiration Antonio Lambe —⁄ 85 ⁄— Oak-Rod Baskets in Brown County: Historic Photographs of a Craft Tradition Jon Kay 5 —⁄ 93 ⁄— The Anlaby Commemorative Oaks: an Extraordinary Case of Multiple Ground-Layered Branches in Quercus canariensis Willd. Charlie Buttigieg —⁄ 103 ⁄— Oak Open Day, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, United Kingdom, July 29, 2013 Hugh Angus —⁄ 111 ⁄— Quercus senescens Hand.-Mazz.? Béatrice Chassé —⁄ 113 ⁄— Oak Open Day, Pavia Nusery, Belgium, September 22, 2013 The Art of Grafting Eike Jablonski —⁄ 123 ⁄— Oak Open Days, Aiken Oak and Horticultural Tour, USA, November 1-3, 2013 Roderick Cameron —⁄ 135 ⁄— In Search of Vietnam’s Elusive Oaks: Chassé-Colin-Snyers Vietnam 2013 (CCSV13) Béatrice Chassé Fruiting Quercus oxyodon Miq., Nymans Garden (UK, 2013). ERRATA ISSUE No. 24 p. 18, photo caption: Hoperski Forest, Russia p. 37, line 18: 148 rue de l’Abbé Groult p. 205, Photo 3: Charles Snyers d’Attenhoven 6 Diversity Within Oaks Kiran Bargali, Beena Joshi, S.S. Bargali and S.P. Singh Department of Botany, DSB Campus, Kumaun University Nainital-263002, Uttarakhand, India [email protected] ABSTRACT In this paper an overview of the range of variations that occur in the genus Quercus (oaks) of the family Fagaceae is given. Oaks are one of the most important groups of flowering plants and dominate large regions of the Northern Hemisphere. We considered oaks from all regions of the world, while focusing on Himalayan oaks. These have not been studied as much by Western workers or by Indian botanists and foresters. With more than 600 species, Quercus is possibly the greatest natural ecosystem-forming genus of the world. Oaks are known for their great variety of growth forms, leaf shape and size, and for their nutrient-rich acorns. Many other trees might exceed the commercial value of oaks, but with regard to biodiversity, they have few parallels in the living world. Outside tropical rainforests, oaks are the greatest biodiversity-centric plants on the planet. Keywords: acorns, biodiversity, Himalayan oaks, Quercus, leaf morphology, oak ecology 57 Introduction Oaks (Quercus), a genus of the family Fagaceae, contains the largest and the most important hardwoods distributed in the Northern Temperate Zone, Subtropical and Tropical Asia and in the Andes of South America. Oaks occupy a wide range of sites as members of several vegetation types (Munz and Keck, 1959) and they are intimately linked with a large number of other organisms ranging from fungi to ferns, birds to bears and wasps to ants. According to Keator and Bazell (1998), the oak has been a symbol of permanence, strength and courage. Due to their high degree of specialization, oaks are regarded as the most advanced member of the Fagaceae (Kaul, 1986), and occupy latitudes from the Southern Hemisphere close to the equator 1/ Quercus floribunda in Pakistan. up to the 65th parallel. This genus is anemophilous (wind pollinated), and likely to have evolved in a seasonal climate that favored anemophily in the early part of the growing season, when there is a paucity of insect pollinators. Oaks are considered to be early- to mid-successional trees (Abrams, 1992). But the Himalayan oaks are generally regarded as late-successional trees (Singh and Singh, 1987; Bargali et al., 2005). Generally oaks are outcompeted by more shade-tolerant species under intact oak canopies. However, some species, such as the Himalayan Q. floribunda Lindl. are tolerant of deep shade in the regeneration phase (Singh and Singh, 1992). Many oaks are well adapted to xeric conditions (Abrams, 1990), a characteristic that has helped oaks occupy large areas not available to more mesic species. Oaks possess many morphological characteristic that help them endure severe drought conditions (Zobel et al., 1995). They are among the deepest-rooted trees and therefore are able to extract water from great depths. In the Himalayas, Q. leucotrichophora A. Camus is known for its massive root system. Quercus is the largest genus of the Fagaceae with an estimated 300 (Lawrence, 1951) to 600 species (Soepadmo, 1972) from all over the world. In the Himalayan region oaks are mostly gregarious, medium- to large-sized evergreen trees distributed between 800 and 3,800 m/2,625 and 12,467 ft above sea level. Negi and Naithani (1995) reported more than 35 species from this region. The exact number of oak species is an unresolved and dynamic debate. The considerable variation in morphology among species (Negi and Naithani, 1995), parallelism in leaf form (Tucker, 1974) and the ability of many oak species to hybridize (Burns and Honkala, 1990; Parker, 1939) are some of the issues that fuel this debate. This article summarizes the diversity the genus Quercus exhibits in growth forms, leaves, acorns, and ecosystems. While so doing we have considered all of the major oak regions of the world, trying where possible to include what is known about Himalayan oaks for two reasons: 1. Oaks show ecological dominance over a large area in Himalayan ranges, (easily 58 Diversity Within Oaks encompassing about 20 million hectares/49 million acres). 2. The Himalayan oaks are crucial for the biodiversity associated with them and for the services their ecosystems generate. What are oaks? Characteristic features of true oaks are: 1. pendulous male catkins that release their pollen to the wind; 2. inconspicuous female flowers with three stigmas; 3. the male and female flowers are separated from one another both in time and space; 4. they bear an acorn that sits in a distinctive scale-covered cup. Although different authors of oak classification systems have divided the genus in various ways, they roughly recognize the same major groups. These are: White Oaks (Quercus), Black Oaks (Erythrobalanus), Golden Oaks (Protobalanus), and Ring-Cupped Oaks (Cyclobalanopsis). A comparative account of these groups is given in Table 1. Among oaks, Q. glauca Thunb., Q. lamellosa Sm. and Q. semiserrata A. Camus come under Cyclobalanopsis, while Q. semecarpifolia Sm., Q. lanata Sm., and Q. serrata Murray come under Quercus. White Oaks are abundant in Temperate and Mediterranean regions and absent from the Tropics. Black Oaks occur in North and Central America, Golden Oaks in California and Mexico and Ring-Cupped Oaks are mostly tropical and subtropical. All four groups have many features in common, and very few of these features can single out any one particular group. For example, whether acorns ripen in one or two years is a feature shared by at least two different groups. The only trait that seems confined to one group alone is the unique ring-like arrangement of the cup scales in the Cyclobalanopsis group (that also has very distinctive leaves). In many cases, there are exceptions to the general characters described for distinguishing 2/ Quercus brantii Lindl. in Iran. 59 between the four groups. For example not all White Oaks ripen their acorns in a year; the Turkey oak (Q. cerris L.) that has many White-Oak features, matures its acorns in two years. The only relatively consistent difference between White Oaks and Black Oaks is the presence or absence of bristles on the leaf lobes and tips, and even that has exceptions. Free exchange of genes among different species account for the sharing of characters. Parameters Quercus Erythrobalanus Protobalanus Cyclobalanopsis Common name The White Oaks The Black or Red The Golden Oaks The Ring-Cupped Oaks Oaks No.