Oak, Sessile (Quercus patraea) aka the Irish Oak

NATIVE RANGE:

Europe, from Ireland through to Iran

DESCRIPTION:

Large deciduous tree in the white oak family with undulating leaves of five to six lobes, acorns that grow without stalks directly off branches

sessile-oak-in-heath-irish-oak-quercus-patrea- ID 119914399 © Andy Hoech | Dreamstime.com

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BIRNAM WOOD:

In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the three witches that give the Ides of March prophesy live in Birnam Wood, a famed forest throughout Medieval and Renaissance Scotland. The only tree left today of that once vast forest is a sessile oak, nicknamed the Birnam Oak. It is several hundred years old and may have been a baby in Shakespeare’s time.

irish-oak-leaf-sessile-oak ID 49787972 © Alex Scott | Dreamstime.com