Quercus boissieri, Quercus infectoria, Boissier Oak,
Aleppo oak, Cyprus oak, אלון התולע
I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he was tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks.
I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. Amos 2:9
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| | Scientific name: |
| Quercus boissieri Reut. |
| Synonym name: |
| Quercus infectoria Olivier var. veneris (C.K. Schneider) Meikle |
| Common name: |
| Boissier Oak, Aleppo oak, Cyprus oak |
| Hebrew name: |
| אלון התולע |
| Family: |
| Fagaceae, אלוניים |
Date Picture Taken: February 2, 2007
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| | Life form: |
| Phanerophyte, tree |
| Leaves: |
| Alternate, entire, dentate or serrate |
| Flowers: |
| Green |
| Flowering Period: |
| February, March, April |
| Habitat: |
| Mediterranean maquis and forest |
| Distribution: |
| Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon |
| Chorotype: |
| Med - Irano-Turanian |
| Summer shedding: |
| Perenating |
Derivation of the botanical name:
Quercus, Latin for oak.
boissieri, named for Pierre-Edmond Boissier (1810-1885), Swiss botanist.
infectoria, "dyed, colored".
The different Hebrew words used for oak in the Bible (O.T.) are "êl", "êlon", "îlan", "allah", "allôn", and "êlâh" or "âlâhim" (see: pistacia).
- The standard author abbreviation Reut. is used to indicate George François Reuter (1805 – 1872), a French botanist and plant collector.
- The standard author abbreviation C.K. Schneider is used to indicate Camillo Karl Schneider (1876 – 1951), an Austrian botanist and landscape architect.
- The standard author abbreviation Meikle is used to indicate Robert Desmond Meikle (born 1923), a Northern Irish botanist from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Three species of oak are common in Israel: the Quercus calliptinos (coccifera), the Quercus ithaburensis (aegilops), and the Quercus boissierri (infectoria).
Henry Baker Tristram (1822 - 1906) in the Natural History of the Bible: "A third species of Oak is Quercus infectoria, a decidious tree, with foliage very white on the under surface. It is not so common as the other species, but grows on Carmel, and we also met with it in great abundance near Kedes, the ancient Kedesh Naphtali. We saw no very large trees of this Oak, which was seldom much more than twenty feet high. It did not occur south of Samaria".
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