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Galcham oak

Quercus aliena

Also called Oriental White Oak

Galcham oak
Photo: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0
Family
Fagaceae (Beech & oak family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Native range
S. Russian Far East to Indo-China, C. & S. Japan, Taiwan
Climate
temperate

About

Quercus aliena, the galcham oak or oriental white oak, is a species of oak in the family Fagaceae, in the white oak section Quercus. It is a tree native to eastern and Southeast Asia.

How to grow it

The wood is used in East Asia for boat building and wood flooring for houses. The seeds can be crushed into a powder and used as a soup thickener and for mixing into cereals and breads. The seeds when roasted can also be used as a substitute for coffee. Galls produced by the larvae of insects are a rich source of tannin.

Quercus aliena was introduced to Europe in 1908, but remains rare in cultivation outside of its native area. The taproot is deep, making older plants difficult to move. It grows in full sun or partial shade and tolerates strong winds. It can grow in almost any type of soil as long as not waterlogged.

Where it grows

It is native to Korea, Japan (where it occurs in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu), Taiwan, China (where it occurs in the provinces of Anhui, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang), Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Other Quercus plants

Quercus acatenangensis · Mapleleaf oak · Quercus acherdophylla · Quercus acrodonta · Quercus aculcingensis · Red Wood Evergreen Oak · Quercus acutangula · Quercus acutifolia · Sawtooth oak · Quercus aerea · African Oak · Quercus affinis

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Quercus aliena by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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