Prefers a good deep fertile loam which can be on the stiff side. Lime tolerant. Young plants tolerate reasonable levels of side shade. Tolerates moderate exposure, surviving well but being somewhat stunted. Cultivated for its bark in Europe, it is the main source of cork. This sub-species has slightly thinner bark than the species.Trees are first harvested when they are 25 - 30 years old and are then harvested on a 10 - 12 year rotation. Only hardy in the milder areas of Britain, it is not very frost resistant. This sub-species is somewhat hardier than the type. Trees grow well in Cornwall where there are many large specimens. There is at least one large healthy specimen of this tree at Kew, it produced some seeds in the hot summer of 1989. Transplants badly unless it is moved regularly, it should only be moved in September or as growth commences in late spring. Does not fruit well in Britain. Most of the trees grown in Britain as Q. suber are in fact this sub-species. Hybridizes freely with other members of the genus. This species is notably resistant to honey fungus.

Seed - cooked. A famine food. It can be dried, ground into a powder and used as a thickening in stews etc or mixed with cereals for making bread. The seed contains bitter tannins, these can be leached out by thoroughly washing the seed in running water though many minerals will also be lost. Either the whole seed can be used or the seed can be dried and ground it into a powder. It can take several days or even weeks to properly leach whole seeds, one method was to wrap them in a cloth bag and place them in a stream. Leaching the powder is quicker. A simple taste test can tell when the tannin has been leached. The traditional method of preparing the seed was to bury it in boggy ground overwinter. The germinating seed was dug up in the spring when it would have lost most of its astringency. The roasted seed is a coffee substitute.

Seed - it quickly loses viability if it is allowed to dry out. It can be stored moist and cool overwinter but is best sown as soon as it is ripe in an outdoor seed bed, though it must be protected from mice, squirrels etc. Small quantities of seed can be sown in deep pots in a cold frame. Plants produce a deep taproot and need to be planted out into their permanent positions as soon as possible, in fact seed sown in situ will produce the best trees. Trees should not be left in a nursery bed for more than 2 growing seasons without being moved or they will transplant very badly.

Siliceous hills on the littoral.