The Lucombe Oak.

 As you drive up the Road to High Wych from High Wych corner you will notice that the road splits into two carriageways. The reason this happened at a time when the road was being widened and improved was that there is a specimen oak tree in the middle of the elongated island that was created. The tree is a Lucombe Oak.  This was not bred by Thomas Rivers but would have been in his extended garden at one time. The rather poor picture below shows the road dividing and the large oak in the middle distance.

The Lucombe Oak was bred by William Lucombe in his Exeter nursery in 1720. He noticed that other oak trees such as the Turkey Oak naturally hybridised and he tried crossing the Cork Oak Quercus suber with Quercus serris. The result was a fertile hybrid although the acorns do not breed true. Most of the verified propagation has been done by grafting, although this is not apparent in the Rivers tree.




The bark has some of the furrowed characteristics of the Cork Oak.


The leaves of the Lucombe Oak should have small spines on the ends of the lobes. These are not apparent in the comparison picture with the leaf of a Pedunculate Oak , but closer inspection under a low powered microscope reveals the spikes which appear to get blunted with time. This is not surprising because the tree is semi-evergreen and therefore the leaves will be on the tree for some time before it is their turn to fall.








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