English oak
Quercus roburEnglish oak is a broad, spreading tree with heavy, twisting branches. Its leaves have deep rounded lobes and a very short stalk. The acorns hang on long stalks, often in pairs.
How to identify English oak →
Lookalikes
English oak or holm oak?
Both are broad-crowned park oaks with acorns.
The quickest check
The quickest check is the outline of a leaf. English oak: deep rounded lobes. Holm oak: oval, smooth-edged or spiny low down. No leaves on the tree? Check the cup of a fallen acorn.
At a glance
| Look at | English oak | Holm oak |
|---|---|---|
| Outline of a leaf | Deep rounded lobes | Oval, smooth-edged or spiny low down |
| Cup of a fallen acorn | Shallow cup of flat overlapping scales | Deep cup of small hairy scales in rows |
Two ways to tell them apart
Outline of a leafLeaves
Cup of a fallen acornAcorns
The two trees
Holm oak
Quercus ilexHolm oak is an evergreen tree with a huge, dense, rounded crown. Its oval leaves are glossy blackish green on top and fuzzy greyish fawn underneath.
How to identify holm oak →Their other lookalikes
In the app
See them side by side in Treely
- Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
- Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
- A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
- The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: empressmoth (CC0), sim_elliott (CC0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), Louis Aureglia (CC BY 4.0), Wendy Herniman (CC BY 4.0), Matthew Vosper (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.