Quercus canariensis Willd.
Q. faginea Lam. subsp. baetica (Webb) Maire, Q. baetica Villar, Q. nordafricana Villar, Q. mirbeckii Durieu, Q. lusitanica Lam. var. baetica Webb
Eng.: Hairy oak, algerian oak. Spa.: Quejigo moruno, quejigo peloso. Fre.: Chêne zéen. Ara.: Ballut ez-zane, zehn. Tam.: Techt, tachta, tist, test, tazent, azzen, ezzen, alba.
Marcescent tree, monoecious, up to 30 m in height, longly ovate in appearance or ± rounded, regular in shape. Trunk ± straight, up to 1.5 m in diameter, with greyish-brown bark, with deep longitudinal and transverse fissures in older trunks. Branches extended-erect. Young branchlets brown, covered with felted hairs at first and turning glabrescent later on as the hairs disappear later on,. Leaves (5-20 × 2.5-11 cm), alternate, marcescent, slightly coriaceous, ovate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, with thick subacute teeth along the margin; when young tomentose on both sides, with dense indumentum of stellate hairs that falls off tangled; adult leaves green, ± dark on the upper side, glabrescent, lighter and glaucous on the underside, totally glabrous except for some remaining hairs along the major veins. Petiole 8-30 mm, glabrescent. Male flowers numerous, in yellow-green catkins, pendant (4-8 cm). Female flowers solitary in short spikes, upright. Fruit (the corn) a longly ovoid achene (2-3 × 1.2-1.8 cm), with chestnut-yellow nut and cupule with ovate-triangular scales, tomentose, imbricated: lower scales applied and somewhat gibbous; upper scales with ± free apices.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
October to November.
Habitat:
Calcifuge species from low to medium altitudes (up to 1,400 m), in subhumid to hyperhumid bioclimatic zones, on upper thermomediterranean to supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, where it forms extensive forests in Kabylia and Krumiria (NW Tunisia); and more fragmented, in most mountains of the Tellian Atlas in Algeria (Kabilia, Blida mountains, Tazekka Massif, etc.) and in Morocco (central-western Rif, northern Gharb and Middle Atlas —Jebel Tazekka—), with isolated stands or forming small forests, reaching in the S to the central-western High Atlas.
Observations:
Despite being traditionally treated in the North African botanical literature as Q. faginea, its separation at a specific level is widely accepted and Q. canariensis should be used. This is a controversial name because this tree does not grow in the Canary Islands; it was named after an incorrect label in the Broussonet herbarium (“Habitat in Teneriffa“), that collected specimens in the Canary Islands and Morocco.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Near Threatened (NT).