Lucombe Oak

He planted a number of Turkey Oak acorns in his nursery and one of them kept its leaves in the winter. He noticed that this hybrid arose at places where both parents were found to grow. Originally he called his newly discovered hybrid "Evergreen Turkey Oak", because it had inherited evergreen qualities from the Cork Oak. Mr Lucombe created thousands of hybrid trees by grafting shoots of the original naturally occurring tree onto Turkey Oaks.
Mr. Lucombe is also famous for the fact that he felled the original hybrid in 1785. He decided to keep some of the timber to make planks for his own future coffin. The boards were stored under his bed for this purpose. 
However, he lived an exceptionally long life and became 102 years old, which meant that the coffin-planks decayed before Mr Lucumbe did! Whether this reflects on the quality of the timber or the storage conditions, I do not know. Anyhow, they were duly replaced with timber from one of the early grafts.
All I was able to find out about the timber is that it has a dense texture with a close grain, but it has not been used commercially. 

Characteristics: 
The Lucombe Oak makes a fine handsome tree, which can look very stately due to its wide spreading crown and its impressive, usually relatively short trunk. The pale-grey bark is very deeply fissured and its corky texture is inherited from the Cork Oak parent. The leaves are more lobed than those of the Cork Oak and can be confused with those of the Turkey Oak. The bottom of the Lucombe leaves is more densely hairy on the Lucombe leaves and there are no whisker-like stipules around the leaf-base as in Turkey Oak leaves.
The leaves are semi-evergreen, which means that they will stay on the tree right up to spring, except in very severe winters. Mitchell and Coombes in "The Garden Tree" observe the following: "All are evergreen except in very hard winters. The true 'Lucombeana' is semi-evergreen and keeps a fringe of dark yellowish-green leaves around the outside of its crown."
The size of the leaves is about 10-12 cm long and each leaf-lobe has a small spine at the tip. Underneath the leaves the colour is paler (see also photos below).
The male flowers hang in long bunches (see photos below), whilst the female flowers are rather small and inconspicuous.
The acorns takes two years to mature and ripen at the end of the second year. They are very small at first and when ripe they will be about 2-2.5cm long, sit in cup with down-turned bristly scales and has a 1cm stalk or peduncle.
It has to be kept in mind that about 150 years have passed since the original hybrid and so there are a considerable number of variations occurring, which can make it confusing or even impossible to precisely identify the tree. The thickness of the bark and the extent to which the leaves are retained are just two of the many differences possible.
Not only may we find the progeny from Mr. Lucombe's many original grafts and the many trees raised from acorns of the original tree, but later trees have also produced viable acorns. The seed of hybrid trees produces off-spring with variable characteristics. We also find cultivars grafted on different Oaks. The first ones were grafted onto Turkey Oak, but other combinations are possible. The arboretum at the University of Keele has for example a Lucombe specimen grafted on an English Oak. See illustration at the right, which shows a difference in circumference, due to faster growing Lucombe Oak cells and possibly its slightly thicker bark.

Habitat: 
This hybrid form between Turkey Oak and Cork Oak occurs commonly in South European countries where both parents are present. The Lucombe Oak is frequently seen in the south of England, but becomes increasingly rare in Northern areas of England, as well as Scotland and Ireland. It can be locally common in Devon and Cornwall.
The Lucombe Oak has been popular as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens because of its impressive stately crown and the fact that it tends to stay green in winter, an unusual quality in the UK for a tree which can become so large. 

Cultivation: Propagation is by grafting shoots of the desired form onto an other Oak, such as the Turkey Oak. Lucombe acorns may be used to raise seedlings, but the exact qualities of such trees cannot be predicted.
The tree is hardy and very lime-tolerant. Also well able to withstand salt sea-winds.
Landscape experts advice planting this tree singly for best effect, as too many of them together may create a slightly gloomy atmosphere.
Lucombe Oak grows on average to about 5m in its first 10 years and may grow as tall as over 30m in its lifetime. The champion with the largest diameter/thickness (252cm) is a 26m high specimen in Phear Park, Devon (measured in 2001). The highest Lucombe Oak can be found in Carclew, Cornwall and was 35m high with a diameter of 187cm (measured in 1989).
Other recorded hybrids from the same parents, but showing different features are 'Diversifolia' and 'Fulhamensis' (Fulham Oak). Both are much rarer and only seen in a few collections.