The Druids of ancient Britain and Gaul — the Celtic priests two thousand years ago — held the oak tree sacred above all others.

Their name may even come from an old Celtic word meaning 'oak-knowledge'.

Meetings and marriages happened in oak groves; oak bark was boiled into medicine; and mistletoe growing on an oak was cut with a golden sickle and caught in a white cloth before it could touch the ground.

An oak wand was thought to give steady strength, endurance, and honesty — never flashy magic, but the kind that lasted.

The English navy that beat the Spanish Armada in 1588 was built mostly from oak; so was HMS Victory, Nelson's ship, still floating in Portsmouth harbour.

Try this: next time you see an oak tree, look at the shape of its leaf — the wavy lobed edge.

That is one of the most recognisable leaves in the northern hemisphere.

Every acorn is a possible oak.