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Editor's Picks

Michael Eason hiking in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to observe Washingtonia filifera in situ
Currently at San Antonio Botanic Garden, Michael's work has...
Amy Byrne | Feb 15, 2023
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An exhibition that beautifully depicts and locates oaks
Roderick Cameron | Feb 09, 2023
Burke Oak Collection at New York Botanical Garden
The Coleman and Susan Burke Oak Collection at The New York...
Todd Forrest | Feb 08, 2023

Plant Focus

Quercus xjackiana acorns
The hybrid of Q. alba and Q. bicolor

Quercus warkoensir??

There is an oak one can sometimes find as Quercus warkoensir or Q. wartoensis.

After a “deep search” it became clear that it is Q. wartoensis Kotschy s.d. (Revisio generis Quercus1).

Quercus warkoensir
Quercus wartoensis herbarium specimen
© Copyright Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The variant warkoensir appears to be a misinterpretation of the handwritten name on the herbarium specimen at Kew, where it had been recorded under that name. It was recently corrected after I alerted Kew Herbarium of the error.

Quercus warkoensir card
One can see how this epithet could be easily misread as "Warkoensir"

The epithet wartoensis means growing in or near “Warto”; –ensis is an adjectival suffix indicating origin or place. Warto (now Varto) lies in Muş, a province in Turkey. As the letter "w" is pronounced in German like a "v" in English, perhaps that is why Kotschy wrote it that way. The pronunciation should therefore be "varto-en-sis" (with the "e" like in "pet").

It could well be a synonym of Quercus petraea subsp. pinnatiloba (K. Koch) Menitsky.

Q. petraea pinnatiloba
Quercus petraea subsp. pinnatiloba 
Image from stockplant at Pavia Nurseries (Belgium) ©Jan De Langhe, Ghent University Botanical Garden, 2010

1 Some labels on the herbarium sheets by Th. Kotschy bear the title “Revisio generis Quercus”. Mostly without a date (s.d.).