The oak

📖 In short

The oak is a strong tree that lives hundreds of years, with small fruits called acorns, each with a little rough cap. There are more than 600 kinds of oak, most of them in the northern half of the world.

🤩 Did you know?

Oaks usually live between 200 and 400 years, and some longer.
Some oaks are small bushes, and some are more than 30 meters tall.
An oak doesn't produce acorns until it's twenty years old or more.
There are oak forests in the mountains of Morocco, Tunisia and the Levant.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The little acorn

The saying goes: “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” A small acorn that's planted becomes a huge tree after many years.

🔍 Food for animals

Squirrels, deer, wild boar and jays love eating acorns. Squirrels bury lots for winter and forget some, which grow into new trees.

💡 Strong wood

Oak wood is very strong and tough, so it was used to build old ships, furniture, floors and barrels.

🎯 The cork oak

One kind of oak is the cork oak, whose thick spongy bark is peeled off without killing the tree and made into cork. It grows a lot in Portugal, Morocco and Algeria.