Quercus mongolica Seeds | Mongolian Oak
LATIN NAME: Quercus mongolica
COMMON NAME: Mongolian Oak
Plant Profile
Mongolian oak is a deciduous tree of twenty-five to thirty metres with large obovate leaves, seven to ten blunt lobes and a stalk so short that the leaf sits against the shoot. The acorns are egg-shaped, two centimetres long, and they ripen in one season in a shallow scaly cup.
It dominates the mixed forest of north-eastern China, Korea and the Russian Far East, often with Korean pine and Manchurian ash, and it is the oak that most people in Harbin and Shenyang mean when they say oak. The timber is heavy, hard and pale, and it is cut for flooring and for railway sleepers. The acorn sits in a cup of triangular scales, and the shell is thin enough that a squirrel can open it in a minute.
Science & Biotechnology
The species hybridises with the oriental white oak and with the Japanese oak where they meet, and the hybrids are fertile, so the boundary between the three is a matter of population rather than of species. Leaf shape in a mixed stand can be almost anything between the parents.
Acorn production follows a mast cycle of three to five years, and the heavy years drive wild boar numbers, which in turn damage crops and regenerate the forest by rooting. Weevils take a large share of the crop each autumn, and the larvae leave through a neat round hole that is the easiest sign of infestation when collecting.
Uses & Benefits
The wood is used for flooring, for furniture and for the frames of traditional houses, and the bark is a source of tannin for leather. In the north-east the leaves are the food plant of the Chinese tussah silkmoth, and oak woodland is managed for silk as much as for timber.
Acorns are leached and ground for starch, made into jelly and into noodles in the same way as other oaks. The cupules are collected for dyeing, and the dead wood is a favoured substrate for shiitake and for oyster mushrooms, which is why oak logs command a price in mushroom country. The dead leaves are also raked for leaf mould, and oak leaf mould is prized by growers of rhododendrons for its acidity.
Growing from Seed
Gather acorns as they fall in September and sow at once, two centimetres deep, in deep pots. The radicle emerges within weeks and the shoot waits until spring, so a pot that looks empty in December is often alive. Do not let the seed dry.
Plant out young, at one or two years, since the taproot is long and resents being coiled. Give full sun and clear grass from a metre around the trunk for three years. The tree is hardy to minus thirty and tolerates poor, acid soil, but it does not tolerate waterlogging.
Our Take
The oak of north-east Asia, good for timber, for silk and for mushroom logs. Plant it small, keep the grass off it, and wait.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Mongolian Oak often pair it with these related subjects: