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Editor's Picks

Past IOS President Allen Coombes, Curator of Scientific Collections at Puebla University Botanic Garden, discusses leaf variability in Quercus ceirpes (still image from the documentary)
A new documentary by Maricela Rodríguez Acosta
Website Editor | Feb 17, 2026
Quercus miyagii acorn and dried leaves
A rare oak endemic to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan
Elion Jam | Feb 16, 2026
A moss-covered oak (Quercus orocantabrica) in Mata de Albergaria, Peneda-Gerês National Park, Portugal  © Amit Zoran
Steve Potter reviews a new book that features oaks
Steve Potter | Feb 11, 2026

Plant Focus

Quercus canariensis in Cornwall Park, Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand, the champion specimen in New Zealand, planted in the 1920s, 27.2 m tall with a trunk diameter of 209 cm (G. Collett pers. comm. 2026)  © Gerald Collett
Antonio Lambe shares his views on this threatened oak native to Iberia and North Africa

The Morton Arboretum Guides Ex-Situ Collections of Quercus acerifolia

The Tree Conservation Biology lab at The Morton Arboretum contributed an article to the Kew Millennium Seed Bank Partnership newsletter, Samara. The topic was to summarize our work to document, manage, and improve ex-situ collections of the rare and IUCN Critically Endangered Quercus acerifolia (maple-leaf oak). With partners united by the GCCO, such as Stephens Lake Park Arboretum and the City of Columbia Parks & Recreation Department, including IOS members Mark Coggeshall and Ryan Russell and others, we are helping design genetically representative seed orchards that could produce seed for supplementing wild populations—and ensure a future for this species. You can download the newsletter here.  See page 11.

Quercus acerifolia
Quercus acerifolia leaves at Ouachita National Forest © Ryan Russell

Citation

Hoban, Schumacher and Koontz, 2022. Morton Arboretum guiding ex situ collections of Critically Endangered oak. Samara: The International Newsletter of the Millennium Seedbank Partnership. Issue 38.