The giant acorn cups of Hedgeley Dene

I see all kinds of things in acorns. The stumpy little ones of the Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) remind me of the Vatican. Or more precisely the head gear of the pope and cardinals. Other species have acorns shaped like Arnotts Chocolate Royals, others (with their cups) are like ice-cream cones.

Today's Oak, the Valonia Oak, has acorn cups that conjure up a papaha, the sheep skin hat worn by the cossacks of Russia. Sort of. In any case the cup is large, up to five centimetres across, and the scales on it long, to a centimetre or two. So large and bulky that they were considered worth collecting and (due to high tannin content) using to tan leather.

The camatina or camata, as they are called (although see this historical record describing how different species may be traded under at least one of these names; noting that Quercus aegilops is another name used for the Valonia Oak) are picked unripe from the tree, then dried for tanning and dying (a black colour).

In Eurasia, the acorns themselves (which contain no tannin) are eaten - raw or cooked - by people, or fed to pigs, sheep and goats. I gather the acorns for human consumption were first rinsed thoroughly to remove the bitter taste.

In Hedgeley Dene, Malvern, where the trees I photographed stand, the acorns are almost all eaten by possums or their like. We found only a few still nestled into their scaly cup.

Valonia Oak comes from Greece, Albania, Turkey and possibly the south-east of Italy. It is usually deciduous, although sometimes it's what we describe as semi-evergreen (that is, keeping some leaves throughout winter or losing some or all for a relatively short time only). In April it had plenty of green leaves.

The common name seems to be from the Italian 'vallonia', corrupted from the Greek 'balánia' for acorns.

Most oak enthusiasts know this species as Quercus macrolepis but these days it has been dropped to subspecies level, of Quercus ithaburensis, which otherwise grows in south-west Asia and has smaller, even less deeply lobed leaves. This is the leaf of the Valonia Oak from Hedgeley Dene.

So, Quercus ithaburensis subspecies macrolepis it is. The species name is a reference to Mount Tabor in Israel, where subspecies ithaburensis grows, or grew - that subspecies has the common name Tabor Oak. 'Macrolepis' means with large scales, in this case on the acorn cup.

The Valonia Oak is these days grouped together with 13 other oaks, out of the 400 to 450 currently recognised species in the genus, in the subgenus Cerris, section Cerris.

What this means is that the Valonia Oak has something in common with the Turkey Oak. You can see that most obviously in the scales on the acorn cups. The leaves of the Turkey Oak are more deeply lobed, and those lobes not as pointy. Again, from Hedgeley Dene.

Oak leaves, though, are notoriously variable in shape. Then there are hybrids to contend with. Which is all part of the rich tapestry of oak taxonomy and nomenclature. It's a weave I'm getting to know as I embark on a mini-project to better understand, and maybe even write something, about the genus Quercus in Oak Lawn, here at Melbourne Gardens. And my wife Lynda has taken to illustrating them.

Which is all good and well but the Valonia Oak is not represented in Oak Lawn or, it seems, the rest of Melbourne Gardens. So perhaps that book will be titled 'The Oaks of Oak Lawn and Hedgeley Dene'. Which sounds very quaint, and fun.