Quercus coccifera
species of plant
Quercus coccifera, commonly known as kermes oak, holly oak, or Palestine oak, is an evergreen oak shrub or tree in section Ilex of the genus. It has many synonyms, including Quercus calliprinos. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Northern African Maghreb, south to north from Morocco to France and west to east from Portugal to Cyprus, Anatolia, and the Levant, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, the Balkans, and Greece, including Crete. The Kernes oak was historically important as the food plant of Kermes scale insects, from which a red dye called crimson was obtained. The etymology of the specific name coccifera is related to the production of red cochineal (crimson) dye and derived from Latin coccum which was from Greek κόκκος, the kermes insect. The Latin -fera means 'bearer'.
Description
Quercus coccifera is usually a shrub less than 2 metres (6+1⁄2 feet) high, rarely a small tree, reaching 1–6 metres (3+1⁄2–19+1⁄2 ft) tall (with 10 m or 33 ft specimens recorded in Kouf, Libya).
Taxonomy
Quercus coccifera
Quercus coccifera was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is called "chêne des garrigues" (garrigue oak) in French. The term "garrigue" comes from Catalan or Occitan "garric" (meaning "twisted") the name for Q. coccifera in those languages.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Quercus coccifera” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Quercus, coccifera and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of plant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q158178. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1753.
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This entry incorporates text from “Quercus coccifera” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.