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Quercus ilex ballota

Tree

HomeTreeQuercus ilex ballota

Arid places, maquis, woods and hills on limestone.

Family: Fagaceae
Height: 25 m / 83 ft
Sun, Semi-shade
Light, Medium and Heavy Soil
Moist

Plant Rating

Edible Uses: 5 of 5
Medicinal Uses: 2 of 5
Other Uses: 3 of 5

Native Habitat

Holm Oak Quercus ilex ballota native habitat is Arid places, maquis, woods and hills on limestone.

Edible Uses

Seed - raw or cooked. The seed of this variety is normally sweet. The seed is up to 3cm long, it can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickening in stews etc or mixed with cereals for making bread. The seed from some trees contains bitter tannins, these can be leached out by thoroughly washing the seed in running water though many minerals will also be lost. Either the whole seed can be used or the seed can be dried and ground it into a powder. It can take several days or even weeks to properly leach whole seeds, one method was to wrap them in a cloth bag and place them in a stream. Leaching the powder is quicker. A simple taste test can tell when the tannin has been leached. The traditional method of preparing the seed was to bury it in boggy ground overwinter. The germinating seed was dug up in the spring when it would have lost most of its astringency. The roasted seed is a coffee substitute. An edible oil is obtained from the seed.

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