Chan Ryul Park*1, Dowon Lee2, Jeong Hak Oh1
1 Division of Forest Ecology, Korea Forest Research Institute
2 Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University

Korean people have intentionally been planting the Oaks at the lower areas of mountain to replace the main staple food when the main staple food is scarce. We identified the artificial planting at the national scale from old literatures (1300~1900) of the Annals of the Choson Dynasty. Nowadays Korean people still enjoy the DOTORIMUK (DOTORI means acorns, MUK does jelly) as a side dish and diet food all over the country. To make a DOTORIMUK, Korean have been utilizing six main oak species Q. mongolica, Q. serrata, Q. variabilis, Q. acutissima, Q. dentata, and Q. aliena in Korea. Among six species, Q. acutissima was known to be distributed at lower regions near village groves. People have been hammering the trunk of Q. acutissima to drop the acorns on the canopy, so we now identify the artificial malformation on the trunk all over the country. In village groves, these Oaks provide not only acorns but also diverse habitat for insects and birds. Regeneration mechanism of acorns was known to be more dependent on the sprouting than seedling. Recently, the popularity of acorns as diet foods is increasing, however distribution of Q. acutissima near village have been shrinking due to low management and concerns by depopulation of local people. Chinese products of acorns and their powders have been increasing; rural development including village groves can threaten the artificial and historical distribution range of oaks in Korea. We would suggest the Q. acutissima trees as a cultural keystone species in Korea.