Oak in the context of "Cog (ship)"

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⭐ Core Definition: Oak

An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, with some 500 species, both deciduous and evergreen. Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene. Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades, but many oak species hybridise freely, making the genus's history difficult to resolve.

Ecologically, oaks are keystone species in habitats from Mediterranean semi-desert to subtropical rainforest. They live in association with many kinds of fungi including truffles. Oaks support more than 950 species of caterpillar, many kinds of gall wasp which form distinctive galls (roundish woody lumps such as the oak apple), and a large number of pests and diseases. Oak leaves and acorns contain enough tannin to be toxic to cattle, but pigs are able to digest them safely. Oak timber is strong and hard, and has found many uses in construction and furniture-making. The bark was traditionally used for tanning leather. Wine barrels are made of oak; these are used for aging alcoholic beverages such as sherry and whisky, giving them a range of flavours, colours, and aromas. The spongy bark of the cork oak is used to make traditional wine bottle corks. Almost a third of oak species are threatened with extinction due to climate change, invasive pests, and habitat loss.

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Oak in the context of Furniture

Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furniture is also used to hold objects at a convenient height for work (as horizontal surfaces above the ground, such as tables and desks), or to store things (e.g., cupboards, shelves, and drawers). Furniture can be a product of design and can be considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. It can be made from a vast multitude of materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflects the local culture.

People have been using natural objects, such as tree stumps, rocks and moss, as furniture since the beginning of human civilization and continues today in some households/campsites. Archaeological research shows that from around 30,000 years ago, people started to construct and carve their own furniture, using wood, stone, and animal bones. Early furniture from this period is known from artwork such as a Venus figurine found in Russia, depicting the goddess on a throne. The first surviving extant furniture is in the homes of Skara Brae in Scotland, and includes cupboards, dressers and beds all constructed from stone. Complex construction techniques such as joinery began in the early dynastic period of ancient Egypt. This era saw constructed wooden pieces, including stools and tables, sometimes decorated with valuable metals or ivory. The evolution of furniture design continued in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, with thrones being commonplace as well as the klinai, multipurpose couches used for relaxing, eating, and sleeping. The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented. Furniture design expanded during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs. The nineteenth century is usually defined by revival styles. The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. One unique outgrowth of post-modern furniture design is a return to natural shapes and textures.

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Oak in the context of Rab (island)

Rab (Croatian: [ɾâːb]) is an island in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Croatia, located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.

The island is 22 km (14 mi) long, has an area of 93.6 km (36 sq mi) and 7,161 inhabitants (2021). The main settlement on the island is the eponymous town of Rab, although the neighboring village of Palit has the biggest population. The highest peak is Kamenjak at 408 m. The northeastern side of the island is mostly barren, karst, while the southwestern side is covered by one of the last oak forests of the Mediterranean.

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Oak in the context of Foloi oak forest

37°45′N 21°45′E / 37.750°N 21.750°E / 37.750; 21.750

The Folóï oak forest (Greek: Δρυοδάσος Φολόης) is an oak forest in southwestern Greece. It is located in the municipal unit of Foloi, Olympia, Elis, in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula. The Folóï oak forest is situated at an altitude of 688m, on the plateau of the Folóï mountain. It is an ecosystem unique in the Balkan peninsula and consists of a territory of 9,900 acres (40 km), which is almost entirely covered by deciduous oaks that form a dense forest area.

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Oak in the context of Perkwunos

*Perkʷūnos (Proto-Indo-European: 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks') is the reconstructed name of the weather god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. The deity was associated with fructifying rains, and his name was probably invoked in times of drought. In a widely attested Indo-European mythic pattern, the thunder-deity engages in combat with a multi-headed water-serpent in order to release the life-giving waters that had been confined or obstructed.

*Perkʷūnos was often associated with the oak tree, probably because such tall trees are frequently struck by lightning. His domain may have been conceived as the forested mountains, designated as *Perkʷūnyós. A term for the sky, *h₂éḱmō, appears to have signified a "heavenly vault of stone" (comparable to the notion of firmament), but it could also denote a "stone-made weapon" (akin to a thunderstone). In this latter sense, the word was at times employed to refer specifically to the thunder-god's weapon. Another designation for his weapon, *mel-d-(n)-, can be reconstructed from the comparative traditions. The term originally denoted the "thunder-god's hammer" and, likely by semantic extension, has come to signify "lightning".

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Oak in the context of Dryad

A dryad (/ˈdr.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing. Δρυάς) is an oak tree nymph or oak tree spirit in Greek mythology; Drys (δρῦς) means "tree", and more specifically "oak" in Greek. Today the term is often used to refer to tree nymphs in general.

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Oak in the context of Trichome

Trichomes (/ˈtrkmz, ˈtrɪkmz/; from Ancient Greek τρίχωμα (tríkhōma) 'hair') are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant is an indumentum, and the surface bearing them is said to be pubescent.

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Oak in the context of Tannin

Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term tannin is widely applied to any large polyphenolic compound containing sufficient hydroxyls and other suitable groups (such as carboxyls) to form strong complexes with various macromolecules.

The term tannin (from scientific French tannin, from French tan "crushed oak bark", tanner "to tan", cognate with English tanning, Medieval Latin tannare, from Proto-Celtic *tannos "oak") refers to the abundance of these compounds in oak bark, which was used in tanning animal hides into leather.

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Oak in the context of Temperate deciduous forest

Temperate deciduous or temperate broadleaf forests are a variety of temperate forest 'dominated' by deciduous trees that lose their leaves each winter. They represent one of Earth's major biomes, making up 9.69% of global land area. These forests are found in areas with distinct seasonal variation that cycle through warm, moist summers, cold winters, and moderate fall and spring seasons. They are most commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere, with particularly large regions in eastern North America, East Asia, and a large portion of Europe, though smaller regions of temperate deciduous forests are also located in South America. Examples of trees typically growing in the Northern Hemisphere's deciduous forests include oak, maple, basswood, beech and elm, while in the Southern Hemisphere, trees of the genus Nothofagus dominate this type of forest. Temperate deciduous forests provide several unique ecosystem services, including habitats for diverse wildlife, and they face a set of natural and human-induced disturbances that regularly alter their structure.

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Oak in the context of Aspromonte

The Aspromonte is a mountain massif in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (Calabria, southern Italy). In Italian aspro means "rough" whereas in Greek it means "white" (Άσπρος), therefore the name literally translates to either "rough mountain" or "white mountain". It overlooks the Strait of Messina, being limited by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas and by the Pietrace river. The highest peak is Montalto (1,955 m (6,414 ft)). The constituting rocks are mostly gneiss, and mica schists, which form characteristic overlapping terraces. The massif is part of the Aspromonte National Park.

In the short coastal strip citrus fruits, vine and olives are grown, while at high elevations the vegetation is composed mostly by oak and holm oak under 1,000 m (3,300 ft), and by pine, Sicilian fir and beech over it. Olive trees grow in abundance. Also, the rare bergamot, the lemony-yellow fruit used in perfumes and flavouring for Earl Grey tea, only grows in the southern Aspromonte.

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