A lone old pedunculate oak in a meadow, under a sky of thin clouds

02The Oaks

Time that stands upright.

Pedunculate oak · Quercus robur

Natural Monument · Šalinac, Smederevo

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44°41′24″ N 21°00′59″ E

168 large pedunculate oaks

on nineteen hectares

They are about two hundred years old — some, by estimate, even older. So many old oaks in one place can hardly be found in Serbia any more.

The trunk and crown of an old pedunculate oak, seen from below

Measured in 1984

From rootto crown.

4.14 mtrunk circumference
1.32 mtrunk diameter
17.58 mheight
15.43 mcrown diameter
The average of all trees. The largest reach more than 25 m in height, and their trunks are wider than two metres.

Dead wood. Living habitat.

A hollow or fallen tree is not the end of the forest. Owls and woodpeckers nest in the cavities, and in the rotting wood live the larvae of the stag beetle and the great capricorn beetle — species also protected by the European Habitats Directive.

Old trees

What remains
when an oak falls.

Old and dead trees are not removed. A fallen tree stays where it fell — and there it goes on feeding the forest.

A twisted dead tree beside a living oak, in spring — A dead tree stays where it stands.

Female stag beetles lay their eggs in rotting wood.

A dry stump with a cavity in front of an old oak, in summer — Owls and woodpeckers nest in the cavities.

A fallen trunk with a hollow, in autumn leaves — The larva of the great capricorn beetle lives in the wood for four years.

The same dry stump in front of the oak, in autumn colours — A hollow is somebody’s home.

A twisted dead tree and fallen branches under snow — Fallen branches stay where they fell.

An old forest also lives on wood that has stopped growing.

In belief

The lion among trees.

Because of its longevity and hardness, for thousands of years the oak has held the place that the lion holds among animals and the eagle among birds. Oak groves were sacred places; later they became sacred “zapis” trees, and the oak itself the badnjak, the Christmas Eve yule log.

Oak timber was used to build log churches, houses and boats. It was in oak forests that Karađorđe’s insurgents grew up.

The story goes in order · 7 chapters to go

03Next chapter

Flora and Fauna

All that lives in the shade of the oaks.

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