Quercus suber
Cork oak

Cork oak (Quercus suber) is a medium-sized, monoecious, evergreen oak tree native to the coastal regions of the western Mediterranean basin. It is found in small and fragmented natural populations and large plantations managed for cork production (Eriksson et al., 2017). This species is adapted to humid and warm climates, tolerating drought, heavy rainfall, and high temperatures. It typically grows in mixed forests and open woodlands, preferring sandy and light structured soils (Silva et al., 2023). Forest landscapes with cork oaks are biologically diverse, which is why many cork-oak savannas are protected ecosystems in Europe.

Cork oak is characterized by its thick, insulating bark, which protects it from wildfires. The tree's bark is used as a source of cork, a renewable resource obtained by peeling the bark away from the trunk every 9 – 12 years without harming the tree as the bark regenerates (Eriksson et al., 2017). The cork is used for wine stoppers, insulation, flooring, wall tiles, sound-proofing materials, and various eco-friendly products, making it valuable in the bioeconomy of countries such as Portugal (Sousa et al., 2022; Silva et al., 2023).

in situ genetic conservation unit
ex situ genetic conservation unit
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EUFORGEN’s publications on Abies alba

Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use

Quercus suber - Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use for cork oak

Publication Year: 2008
Author: Gil, L.; Varela, M.C.

Genetic resources of cork oak should be conserved in several in situ populations representing the ecogeographic range of the tree. Each population should consist of at least 250 trees to ensure at least 50 reproductive trees.
The seed used to artificially regenerate large populations or to establish new ones should be collected from local populations or populations growing under similar edaphoclimatic conditions. However, seeds should not be collected for this purpose in years of low seed production.

In small and marginal populations, conservation activities should aim to promote regeneration to increase the population size. Where seed set is good, the main approach may be to protect the seed and seedlings from grazing and browsing animals. However, if the seed set is low, as a result of too few reproductive trees for example, seeds should be collected and seedlings raised in nurseries before being planted out in the location from which the seed was obtained.

Genetic resources of cork oak should be conserved in several in situ populations representing the ecogeographic range of the tree. Each population should consist of at least 250 trees to ensure at least 50 reproductive trees.
The seed used to artificially regenerate large populations or to establish new ones should be collected from local populations or populations growing under...
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Acknowledgements

This distribution map has been developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (partly based on the EUFORGEN map) and released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)


Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Data in Brief 12, 662-666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.05.007

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Fazia Krouchi (Algeria), Hasmik Ghalachyan (Armenia), Thomas Geburek (Austria), Berthold Heinze (Austria), Rudi Litschauer (Austria), Rudolf Litschauer (Austria), Michael Mengl (Austria), Ferdinand Müller (Austria), Franz Starlinger (Austria), Valida Ali-zade (Azerbaijan), Vahid Djalal Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), Karen Cox (Belgium), Bart De Cuyper (Belgium), Olivier Desteucq (Belgium), Patrick Mertens (Belgium), Jos Van Slycken (Belgium), An Vanden Broeck (Belgium), Kristine Vander Mijnsbrugge (Belgium), Dalibor Ballian (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Alexander H. 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