Cork oak

This is one of the few trees able to regenerate their bark. You can find them near the Citrus Grove, at the centre of our Mediterranean Biome.

Botanical description

Scientific name: Quercus suber
Family: Fagaceae (beech, oak, sweet chestnut)
Also known as: Sorbriero

Evergreen tree up to 26m tall. Bark deeply fissured and corky, up to 15cm thick in places. Leaves weakly lobed with a slight point at the tip, up to 4cm long. Each tree has male and female flowers (monoecious). Acorns solitary or paired and are deeply cupped by the upper scales. Pollinated by wind.

Facts

Cork is a kind of bark where the dead cells are waterproofed by a wax called suberin. Most trees produce some cork but the cork oak produces lots!
One cubic centimetre of cork contains 40 million air cells. It is warm to the touch, durable, light, bouncy, chemically inert, and the suction-cup effect of the cut cells makes it stick to a bottle neck.

Where it grows

South-western Europe (France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Portugal, Spain) and northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia). The cork oak favours acidic soils, requires a hot dry summer season and a cold and moist winter, and can be found in open woodlands, on hills and lower slopes at 300–1000m altitude.

Common uses

Did you know?

Cork oak wood pastures are rich in plant and animal biodiversity. Buying cork products supports cork oak wood pastures and their biodiversity.

Cork is one of the world's most important renewable forest products. The cork bark is stripped off the tree in a thick cylindrical layer. Each tree is harvested every nine years.
A single tree can cork 4,000 bottles. Fine wines can develop through the happy marriage between cork and a bottle made tall enough to lie on its side. The wine ‘breathes’ through the cork as it ages.
Cork is a biodegradeable alternative to environmentally unfriendly PVC flooring. It is hard-wearing, very sound absorbent and agreeable to walk on due to reflection of warmth and its natural bounce. Cork is also used in insulation, floats, engine gaskets and even skirts, heels and handbags!

Wildlife facts

Cork oaks have been grown since the Middle Ages in Portugal and Spain in open woodlands grazed by sheep and cattle. High-value ham is obtained from the Iberian pigs that thrive on the fallen acorns. No fertilisers, herbicides or irrigation are used. This traditional farming supports a remarkable abundance and variety of rare and endangered wildlife, including the black vulture, booted eagle, Bonelli’s eagle and short-toed eagle, which make giant nests in cork-trees and eats snakes.