Identification Features

• Bark: Becomes progressively fissured and wholly grey in more mature trees with short knobbly ridges. 
• Twigs: Silvery. Hairless. Small lenticels.
• Buds: Orange brown egg-shaped buds with cluster at shoot tips.

Description/General Characters:
Q. robur is ultimately a large tree; heavy limbed, spreading with twisted branches and broad crown which will become broader than tall. Q. Petraea has a domed crown on a longer bole than Q. robur and is cleaner-looking and less twiggy.

Range:
Q. robur throughout Europe, east to the Caucasus. Q. petraea from Norway to Spain, east to the Crimea.

Habitat:
Q. robur - Woodlands & Hedgerows. Planted in parklands. Dominant large tree in much of the UK. Q. petraea - Woodlands especially on light/acid soils. Absent from much lowland habitat.