Holly Oak Tree

Facts about Holly Oak Tree, "Scientific name for Holly Oak Tree is Quercus ilex". The Holly Oak Tree is also known as the evergreen oak, or the holm oak. It is a member of the white oak genus which is native to Mediterranean. The Holly Oak Tree is massive with green foliages each year, first established in the United Kingdom in the sixteenth century and can recently be noticed growing in areas around the Mamhead Park in Devon.

The Holly Oak Tree is considered as the national tree of Malta and have been grown lasting for a long period of time, approximately five hundred to one thousand years. The deciduous Holly Oak Tree is medium in size and can grow in, its early stages of life, to a height of about three feet (.91 meters) with a spread of ten feet (3.04 meters) and rarely thirteen feet (3.96). When the Holly Oak Tree matures to a height of about sixty six to eighty nine feet (20.11 to 27.12 meters) from the ground.

The Holly Oak Tree has a black colored, smooth, square-fissured bark with evergreen leaves which are leathery. The leaves have a dark green color on the outer surface with a pale white-gray color underneath. The lower parts of the leaves remain hairy with short tufts. They can develop up to two to three inches (5 to 7.6 cm) long and at most one inch (2.5 cm) wide with the younger leaves at the base being larger, about three inches (7.6 cm) long.

They have various shapes including pine-shaped and toothed tips. The Holly Oak Tree’s aged leaves fall approximately one to two years after new ones have been developed. Flowering occurs in spring and catkins are produced which eventually are pollinated to produce acorns. The acorns take about six months to mature.
Holly Oak Tree leaves are made up of many colored pigments, green chlorophyll hides the colors during the growing season of spring and summer. As days get shorter and cooler temperatures come in the fall, it cause the chlorophyll to break down and than the other color pigments can be seen.
Holly Oak Tree growth is referred to as Meristem (The undifferentiated embryonic plant tissue from which new cells are created, as that at the tip of a root or stem). This tissue can be found at the tips of shoots and leaves. Inside the stem growth in thickness occurs at the vascular cambium.
Holly Oak Trees make their own food from sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients from the soil.

The Holly Oak Tree can greatly establish in moist to well-drained sun and in full to partly shade. They require sun especially during flowering and for the acorns to ripen.
A Full grown Holly Oak Tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds (21.77 kg) of carbon dioxide a year. The same Holly Oak Tree could also produce enough oxygen in a day for two people. In a single day, a large Holly Oak Tree can drink up to 100 gallons (378.5 liter) of water from the ground and discharge it into the air.
You can tell a Holly Oak Trees age by the number of growth rings. Growth rings size shows what kind of conditions accrued that year, the temperature and if it was a dry or wet year.
Bark of the Holly Oak Tree protects it from the elements and is made up of dead cells.
Holly Oak Tree roots usually grow two to three times the width of the tree branches. The ideal time to fertilize your Holly Oak Tree is in late fall or early spring. If you want to transplant a Holly Oak Tree do it in fall, this is ideal for most trees.


The Holly Oak Tree’s wood is tough and hard and therefore it can be used for construction works including building of vessels, pillars and wine casks. The Holly Oak Tree can also be used for charcoal production or firewood. The catkins are food for the wild and the massive tree can be used as home for some wild animals.