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Quercus afares; photograph (c) Mehdi Chetibi, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Mehdi Chetibi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-14

Quercus afares Pomel

African Oak

Fagaceae · Algeria, Tunisia

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Quercus afares, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Quercus afares, photograph (c) Sam J. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Quercus afares, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Quercus afares, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Quercus afares, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Quercus afares, photograph (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) 47 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.0°C
Record low -3.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
951mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–48DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Quercus afares, the African oak, is a species of oak native to Algeria and Tunisia. It has a very limited distribution in the coastal mountains of the eastern Tell Atlas in Algeria, and the Mogod-Kroumerie region of northwestern Tunisia. Quercus afares is deciduous, with a corky bark (thinner than that of the cork oak, Q. suber), and can reach 25–30 metres in height. It grows in dense stands, associated with cork oak at elevations as low as 200 metres, and with the semi-deciduous Algerian oak (Q. canariensis) from 700 to 1600 metres elevation. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Quercus afares", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (699 mm of 959 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.8 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

959 mm in the median year at the habitat, 699 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 159 mm, driest month July at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 808 mm to 1,195 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 951 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 959 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.0 °C, the absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 159 frost nights in 44 years, 3.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.4 °C to 4.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.6 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +52 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Quercus afares through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 1.9 °C; 959 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 14–48RH 48–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 12 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 9–1111 / 10–1214 / 13–1516 / 15–1720 / 19–2225 / 24–2730 / 27–3130 / 28–3125 / 24–2621 / 20–2115 / 14–1511 / 10–12
Night °C2 / 0–42 / 1–44 / 3–66 / 5–810 / 9–1214 / 13–1617 / 16–1918 / 17–2015 / 14–1711 / 10–137 / 5–93 / 2–6
Rain mm130 / 105–178100 / 83–12793 / 80–11491 / 76–10961 / 56–7122 / 20–256 / 5–915 / 11–1765 / 62–7593 / 78–117124 / 98–161159 / 128–214
DLI16 / 15–1822 / 22–2430 / 29–3237 / 37–3942 / 42–4347 / 47–4748 / 48–4842 / 42–4333 / 33–3525 / 24–2717 / 17–1914 / 13–16
RH %61 / 61–6260 / 60–6259 / 58–6058 / 57–5856 / 54–5751 / 50–5348 / 46–4950 / 48–5156 / 54–5658 / 56–5860 / 59–6161 / 61–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 19 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1068:3717 (36.575, 5.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 12 distinct grid cells holding 19 of the 19 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1068:3717 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_5.625, lapse-corrected +52 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 770 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlgeria, Tunisia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.598, 5.615 · in the densest population, 50 records (88% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 57 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 19 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 50 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 38 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 57 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Quercus afares, photograph 1did not loadQuercus afares, photograph 2did not loadQuercus afares, photograph 3did not loadQuercus afares, photograph 4did not loadQuercus afares, photograph 5did not loadQuercus afares, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Sam J. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Fritillaria oranensis Fritillaria oranensis Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Mehdi ChetibiAntirrhinum australe Antirrhinum australe Plantaginaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSilene andryalifolia Silene andryalifolia Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Mehdi ChetibiGeranium malviflorum Geranium malviflorum Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY, Mehdi Chetibi Colchicum androcymbioides Colchicaceae Cyclamen africanum Cyclamen africanum African cyclamen Photo: CC BY, Karim Haddad

Other Quercus 220 in the reference

Quercus acerifolia Quercus acerifolia Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Laurel MeredykQuercus acuta Quercus acuta Red-wood evergreen oak Photo: CC BY, Marco MussitaQuercus × acutidens Quercus × acutidens Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Eric Alan IsaacsonQuercus acutifolia Quercus acutifolia Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialQuercus acutissima Quercus acutissima Sawtooth oak Photo: CC BY, Will BurnsideQuercus affinis Quercus affinis Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialQuercus agrifolia Quercus agrifolia Coast live oak Photo: CC BY, Gregory WadaQuercus alba Quercus alba White oak Photo: CC BY, Jeff ClarkQuercus aliena Quercus aliena Oriental white oak Photo: CC BY, plant 0302Quercus alnifolia Quercus alnifolia Golden Oak Photo: CC BY, Aurelijus Narbutas Quercus × andegavensis Fagaceae Quercus arizonica Quercus arizonica Arizona white oak Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ all 221 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Quercus afares f. spinosa; Quercus afares var. cerrifolia; Quercus afares var. incana; Quercus afares var. virescens; Quercus castaneifolia f. incana and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Quercus castaneifolia Coss. and Quercus castaneifolia Coss. ex J.Gay is an older name of this species, not Quercus castaneifolia, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fagaceae
Described by
Pomel
Native to
Algeria, Tunisia
Wild records
57 in range · 50 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 10 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_5.625, lapse-corrected +52 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…