File:Quercus_coccifera_coccifera,_Bot.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Species
SPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderFagales
- FamilyFagaceae
Common Name: kermes oak
via GBIF · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 1,000
- With media
- 858
- Family
- Fagaceae
- Collections
- DAV, US, MOR, UCR, QUE, CDA
- Recorded in
- United States, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Spain, France, Libya
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Quercus coccifera, commonly known as kermes oak, holly oak, or Palestine oak, is an evergreen oak shrub or tree in section Ilex of the genus. It has many synonyms, including Quercus calliprinos. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Northern African Maghreb, south to north from Morocco to France and west to east from Portugal to Cyprus and Turkey, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, the Balkans, and Greece, including Crete. The Kermes oak was historically important as the food plant of Kermes scale insects, from which a red dye called crimson was obtained. The etymology of the specific name coccifera is related to the production of red cochineal (crimson) dye and derived from Latin coccum which was from Greek κόκκος, the kermes insect. The Latin -fera means 'bearer'.
Description
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Quercus coccifera” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.