Botany

Growing to heights of 65 feet (20 meters), cork oak is a unique and valuable tree species. Unlike many other oak trees, cork oak is an evergreen and does not drop its leaves. The thick and knobbly dark grey bark which covers it is the portion known as “cork.”

During cork harvest, the tree remains standing while large sections of its outer bark—the cork itself—are cut and peeled from the tree. Cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its outer bark. After a tree reaches 25 years of age, it can be stripped of its cork once every 9 to 12 years without causing damage to the tree. A single cork oak, which lives up to 200 years, can be harvested over 16 times.