The Hybrid Oak That Time Forgot: Quercus ×coutinhoi Samp. Discovered in Australia

Charlie Buttigieg

Published May 2014 in International Oaks No. 25: 35–42

Abstract

Located in a small farm paddock grazed by merino sheep for over one hundred years is a small group of selected European trees. They were planted around 1900 under the direction of the Head Gardener Thomas Leslie on behalf of the owner of one of South Australia’s most influential and significant pastoral properties, Anlaby. This article deals with one of the two hybrids found to date on this property, Quercus ×coutinhoi Samp. The presence of hybrids in Australia has a long history with introductions from both wild and cultivated sources from around the world and from Australian collections. Their prevalence in Australia has complicated the process of identification. Discovering a hybrid that has never been reported in cultivation in Australia extends our botanical knowledge and attracts our historical attention, while we stop to simply admire its presence. Such is the case for Q. ×coutinhoi discovered in April 2013. Its identification opened a new pathway of historical research on the cultivated oaks of Anlaby in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

Keywords

Anlaby, oak hybrids in Australia

Further reading

Anonymous. The Duttons of Anlaby. Anlaby Estate, Property of Henry Dutton, Esq. In Pastoral Homes of Australia. Melbourne: Pastoralists' Review, 1910-1914.

Dutton, Geoffrey. Dutton, William Hampden (1805-1849) In Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol. 1. Australia: National Center of Biography, 1966.