Cork oaks and Holm oaks

The cork oaks (Quercus suber, alcornoques) didn't have many acorns, but here is one.

The local pines.

Young cone.

Holm oak (Quercus ilex, encima). The other local oak.

Cork oak bark.

Cork oak recently stripped. It's done at regular intervals... 14 years in some places, only 9 in others, depending on local growing conditions. 

Local people say that if the bark is not stripped the tree will die. That isn't true, of course. I speculate that the underlying point is that if the bark is allowed to grow too thick it's no longer the right quality to be commercially valuable.

Shelling chickpeas.

Cork oak leaves, with lupin seedling.

Holm oak bark, cracking into oblong plates.

Holm oak acorns.

Mature Holm oak acorn; they become a rich cocoa brown. The cup has rather a thin rim. I heard that these Mediterranean oaks have less tannin than the British ones; they feed pigs, chickens and even humans, at a pinch.

Roast dinner with Holm Oak acorns. 

When Don Quixote and Sancho Panza dine with the goatherds, one of the snacks on offer is a "great heap of parched acorns". 

Fat acorns of Holm Oak.

Cork Oak... the cups are thick and "furry".

Holm Oak: an acorn year.

Another evergreen oak: the scrubby Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera), near Albacete.

Honey from Holm Oak. Since oaks are wind-pollenated the blossom doesn't produce nectar, but I think the bees collect honeydew from aphids who feed on the oak leaves.