Also known as the Pedunculate Oak, this tree is native to most of Europe, and to Asia Minor to the Caucasus, and also to parts of North Africa.

It is the type species of the genus (the species by which the oak genus Quercus is defined), and a member of the white oak section Quercus section Quercus.

It is a large deciduous tree that grows to upwards of 90 feet, with lobed and nearly sessile (very short-stalked) leaves 3 inches long. Flowering takes place in mid spring, and their fruit, called acorns, ripen by autumn of the same year. The acorns are just under one inch long, pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk, 1-2 inches long) with one to four acorns on each peduncle.