What is "quercus coccifera"

Oak \Oak\ ([=o]k), n. [OE. oke, ok, ak, AS. [=a]c; akin to D. eik, G. eiche, OHG. eih, Icel. eik, Sw. ek, Dan. eeg.]

1. (Bot.) Any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly fifty occur in the United States, the rest in Europe, Asia, and the other parts of North America, a very few barely reaching the northern parts of South America and Africa. Many of the oaks form forest trees of grand proportions and live many centuries. The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain.

2. The strong wood or timber of the oak.

   Note: Among the true oaks in America are:

   Barren oak, or

   Black-jack, Quercus nigra.

   Basket oak, Quercus Michauxii.

   Black oak, Quercus tinctoria; -- called also yellow oak or quercitron oak.

   Bur oak (see under Bur.), Quercus macrocarpa; -- called also over-cup or mossy-cup oak.

   Chestnut oak, Quercus Prinus and Quercus densiflora.

   Chinquapin oak (see under Chinquapin), Quercus prinoides.

   Coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, of California; -- also called enceno.

   Live oak (see under Live), Quercus virens, the best of all for shipbuilding; also, Quercus Chrysolepis, of California.

   Pin oak. Same as Swamp oak.

   Post oak, Quercus obtusifolia.

   Red oak, Quercus rubra.

   Scarlet oak, Quercus coccinea.

   Scrub oak, Quercus ilicifolia, Quercus undulata, etc.

   Shingle oak, Quercus imbricaria.

   Spanish oak, Quercus falcata.

   Swamp Spanish oak, or

   Pin oak, Quercus palustris.

   Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor.

   Water oak, Quercus aquatica.

   Water white oak, Quercus lyrata.

   Willow oak, Quercus Phellos. [1913 Webster] Among the true oaks in Europe are:

   Bitter oak, or

   Turkey oak, Quercus Cerris (see Cerris).

   Cork oak, Quercus Suber.

   English white oak, Quercus Robur.

   Evergreen oak,

   Holly oak, or

   Holm oak, Quercus Ilex.

   Kermes oak, Quercus coccifera.

   Nutgall oak, Quercus infectoria.

   Note: Among plants called oak, but not of the genus Quercus, are:

   African oak, a valuable timber tree ( Oldfieldia Africana).

   Australian oak or She oak, any tree of the genus Casuarina (see Casuarina).

   Indian oak, the teak tree (see Teak).

   Jerusalem oak. See under Jerusalem.

   New Zealand oak, a sapindaceous tree ( Alectryon excelsum).

   Poison oak, a shrub once not distinguished from poison ivy, but now restricted to Rhus toxicodendron or Rhus diversiloba.

   Silky oak or Silk-bark oak, an Australian tree ( Grevillea robusta).

   Green oak, oak wood colored green by the growth of the mycelium of certain fungi.

   Oak apple, a large, smooth, round gall produced on the leaves of the American red oak by a gallfly ( Cynips confluens). It is green and pulpy when young.

   Oak beauty (Zo["o]l.), a British geometrid moth ( Biston prodromaria) whose larva feeds on the oak.

   Oak gall, a gall found on the oak. See 2d Gall.

   Oak leather (Bot.), the mycelium of a fungus which forms leatherlike patches in the fissures of oak wood.

   Oak pruner. (Zo["o]l.) See Pruner, the insect.

   Oak spangle, a kind of gall produced on the oak by the insect Diplolepis lenticularis.

   Oak wart, a wartlike gall on the twigs of an oak.

   The Oaks, one of the three great annual English horse races (the Derby and St. Leger being the others). It was instituted in 1779 by the Earl of Derby, and so called from his estate.

   To sport one's oak, to be ``not at home to visitors,'' signified by closing the outer (oaken) door of one's rooms. [Cant, Eng. Univ.]

Kermes \Ker"mes\, n. [Ar. & Per. girmiz. See Crimson, and cf. Alkermes.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) The dried bodies of the females of a scale insect ( Kermes ilices formerly Coccus ilicis), allied to the cochineal insect, and found on several species of oak near the Mediterranean; also, the dye obtained from them. They are round, about the size of a pea, contain coloring matter analogous to carmine, and are used in dyeing. They were anciently thought to be of a vegetable nature, and were used in medicine. [Written also chermes.]

2. (Bot.) A small European evergreen oak ( Quercus coccifera) on which the kermes insect ( Kermes ilices, formerly Coccus ilicis) feeds.
   --J. Smith (Dict. Econ. Plants).

3. (Zo["o]l.) [NL.] A genus of scale insects including many species that feed on oaks. The adult female resembles a small gall. Kermes mineral.

   1. (Old Chem.) An artificial amorphous trisulphide of antimony; -- so called on account of its red color.

   2. (Med. Chem.) A compound of the trioxide and trisulphide of antimony, used in medicine. This substance occurs in nature as the mineral kermesite.

Cochineal \Coch"i*neal\ (k[o^]ch"[i^]*n[=e]l; 277), [Sp. cochinilla, dim. from L. coccineus, coccinus, scarlet, fr. coccum the kermes berry, G. ko`kkos berry, especially the kermes insect, used to dye scarlet, as the cochineal was formerly supposed to be the grain or seed of a plant, and this word was formerly defined to be the grain of the Quercus coccifera; but cf. also Sp. cochinilla wood louse, dim. of cochina sow, akin to F. cochon pig.] A dyestuff consisting of the dried bodies of females of the Coccus cacti, an insect native in Mexico, Central America, etc., and found on several species of cactus, esp. Opuntia cochinellifera.

Note: These insects are gathered from the plant, killed by the application of heat, and exposed to the sun to dry. When dried they resemble small, rough berries or seeds, of a brown or purple color, and form the cochineal of the shops, which is used for making carmine, and also as a red dye.

Note: Cochineal contains as its essential coloring matter carminic acid, a purple red amorphous substance which yields carmine red.

Quercus coccifera, the kermes oak, is an oak in the Quercus section Cerris. 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 Turkey, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, Balkans, and Greece, including Crete. The Kermes Oak was historically important as the food plant of the Kermes scale insect, 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 κὀκκος, the kermes insect. The Latin -fera means 'bearer'.