Oak jelly, tofu, noodles, pancakes or spirit anyone?
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This picture from my wikipedia page looks like I'm standing among the branches of an English oak (Quercus robur) or perhaps, because of the larger leaves, an Algerian oak (Quercus canariensis).
In fact, it's the daimyo oak (Quercus dentata), a species closely related to both (they are classified in the same subgenus and section of Quercus) but from 'the East'. Japan, Korea, China and Kuril Islands, says the label in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. (If, like me, you've never visited the Kuril Islands, they are a volcanic archipelago to the north-east of Japan, and in part disputed territory between Japan and Russia.)
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| Redford Park, Bowral, December 2023 |
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| Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, March 2020 |
The leaves of the daimyo oak are big and beautiful. Once seen and handled, this becomes an easy oak species to identify. With some help from the acorn cups which are unlike those of the English and Algerian oaks in having a rather long-scaly indumentum. More like a valonia oak perhaps, although the cup scales of that species are even larger and the acorns (and their cup) bigger.
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| Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, March 2020 |
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| as above |
'Daimyo' is the transcription of a Japanese word for feudal lords who ruled that country for many centuries, and also used for things of great stature, like the leaves of this species. More explicitly, the species is sometimes called the Japanese Emperor oak.
Speaking of stature, the tree in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne has a rather relaxed habit, with leaves that sweep across Oak Lawn in - if I may - dreamy languor. Not unlike a nearby English oak, so maybe it's the habitat.
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| Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, March 2020 |
You can see the makings of that languidity in this next young thing from a park near where I live, photographed in early spring, just as the new leaves were appearing. Perhaps when as old as the one in the botanic gardens - 100 or more years - it will sweep the lawn in much the same way.
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| Fordham Gardens, Camberwell, September 2020 |
There is a subspecies of daimyo oak (Quercus dentata subspecies yunnanensis), although some prefer to treat it as a separate species. We can call it Yunnan oak, although it also grows near Nanning, in the Guangxi province, where I visited last year. There is a young one - planted in 2002 - in Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, considered so important it has its own garden-bed name, the Yunnan Oak Bed.
While the typical subspecies is grown as an ornamental tree around Melbourne, in Korea, and probably the other countries and disputed territories mentioned above, the acorns are eaten. They are treated first to remove tannins and 'acidic flavours', then baked and ground. The flower is made into jelly, a tofu-like substance, noodles, pancakes or even distilled into alcohol.
While some say it's best to collect acorns while green, before the insects and other animals devour them, others wait until after they have fallen. In Australia the acorns seem to be popular with urban wildlife (which I presume is why I haven't found mature acorns, in or outside cups, to photograph) so the first method might be preferable here.
In Japan at least, the leaves are also part of food preparation, providing a wrapping for sweet rice cakes. Those - the leaves - you can find at any time on the tree, other than in winter.
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| as above |
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| Fordham Gardens, Camberwell, September 2020 |
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