economy

Amid a brisk campaign to create raw materials bases for carrying out the regional development policy, a research team of the botanical institute under the State Academy of Sciences has recently established a cultivation technique of Quercus rubra, an oil-bearing plant of high economic value.

In order to help local areas produce edible oil by themselves, the team has endeavoured to remarkably raise the survival rate of grafts of the tree for years.

Quercus rubra is a deciduous broadleaf tree belonging to Fagaceae.

As the fastest growing tree among quercus, it grows more than 70 centimetres tall on an annual average and draws attention as a good species for reforming forest for the high adaptability to soil and great regenerative power.

The forest reformation by dint of Quercus rubra makes it possible to easily and quickly change shrubbery of little use into forests of high economic value with no much effort, as it is carried out through bud grafting or cleft grafting on Quercus dentata, Quercus mongolica and other shrubs belonging to quercus which are widely distributed on mountains at present.

Experiences in Pongchon County of South Hwanghae Province and Yonsan County of North Hwanghae Province show that a day’s work by four skilled workers is enough to reform a hectare of shrubbery into a forest of Quercus rubra.

Its fruit is much heavier than those of common oaks or overcup oak. For the high oil content, the fruit is also called “oily acorn”.

It is said that dozens of kilograms of oil can be extracted from a ton of the fruit.

Edible alcohol can be obtained from the greaves and the remainder can be used as feed for domestic animals. Its wood is good as a material for furniture.

At present, North and South Hwanghae provinces and other local areas are working on the reformation of shrubberies using the tree and its application is getting wider for the great economic profitability and less investment.