Cork Oak

Where it grows

Cork oak is the defining tree of the Iberian dehesa and montado — open silvopastoral woodlands across Portugal, Spain, and the southern shores of the western Mediterranean. It needs hot dry summers, mild winters, and well-drained acidic soils.

How to recognise it

The small leathery leaves are dark green above and downy white below, with toothed margins. The unmistakeable bark is thick, pale grey, and deeply corrugated; on harvested trees the freshly exposed inner bark glows brick-red. The acorn cups are densely scaly.

Uses

Cork is the dead outer bark, harvested by skilled cutters who strip it in long sheets without injuring the tree. The first stripping happens at 25 years, then every 9 years for two centuries. The harvest supplies 70 percent of the worlds wine stoppers, plus shoe soles, gaskets, and acoustic panels. Iberian black pigs forage the acorns to produce jamon iberico.

Conservation

The cork industry is the financial engine that keeps these biodiverse landscapes intact; screwcaps and plastic stoppers threaten them.