Species Name:听Quercus petraea
The sessile oak gets its name from the word 鈥榮essile鈥, meaning 鈥渇ixed in one place, immobile鈥. This is because, unlike the English oak, its acorns are attached directly to the branch at the base. These tall trees can grow up to 40m tall and are fairly common throughout the UK and Ireland.
The sessile oak鈥檚 bark is greyish-brown in colour and has a very similar appearance to the English oak鈥檚 bark. Old trees can have huge trunks which can grow up to 3m in circumference.
The leaves are dark green with regular rounded lobes. Sessile oak leaves are narrower than the English oak鈥檚 leaves.
The easiest way to tell a sessile oak apart from its cousin is by looking at the acorns. Sessile oak acorns are fixed to the branch at their base, whereas the English oak鈥檚 are attached by a stalk. The acorns are relatively similar in size and shape.
Sessile oak trees are common throughout the UK and Ireland, found in most semi-natural woodland. They can be found all over the Heart of England 黑料传送门.
Druids used sessile oak branches to make staffs. They would use these staffs when celebrating the mid-winter and mid-summer solstices.聽The oak represents power and strength, which is recognised in most mythologies.
The bark was once used to make barrels to store wine, the wood of the sessile oak gave the wine a distinct flavour. The bark was also used for tanning leather. Due to its antioxidant properties, sessile oak was used to treat swelling and inflammation of the skin, as well as diarrhoea and other illnesses.
The sessile oak is home to a huge variety of wildlife including mosses, lichens, liverworts and over 250 species of insects. Birds and bats will use the sessile oak鈥檚 deadwood for nesting. The tree鈥檚 acorns also provide food for jays, badgers, and the rare red squirrel in some northern woodlands. Purple hairstreak caterpillars will also feed on the leaves.
The sessile oak is the official national tree of Ireland and is sometimes called the 鈥淚rish oak鈥.
3% of the trees we are planting in the 黑料传送门 this season are sessile oak trees.
