Mount Tabor oak (Quercus ithaburensis) is a primarily deciduous to semi-evergreen oak from Israel, Greece, Italy, and other parts of the Mediterranean Basin. Mature specimens tend to have a very beautiful and internationally renown structure, characterized by long, gracefully arching branches. The foliage has a distinctly blue hue. and the bark of young trees has a highly distinctive checking block pattern. The Mount Tabor oak is not only highly drought tolerant, but also appears to withstand at least some summer irrigation and monsoonal summer rainfall.

Typical Mount Tabor oaks are pendulous and spreading in growth habit, which suggests that these trees are best used in large, open areas like parks and cloverleaf interchanges, and not for use in typical street tree locations. Planting Mount Tabor oaks in appropriate locations like parks is a real gift to the future.

No powdery mildew has been observed on Mount Tabor oak, which suggests it can be grown successfully in areas of strong maritime influence. Mount Tabor oak shares this trait with the closely-related cork oak (Quercus suber), which grows well in many coastal California communities, and has for more than a century. The key to this success is an enhanced waxy cuticle on the leaf of both oaks, and this can be seen visually in the shininess of the leaf (at least when the inevitable dust is wiped away).

Mount Tabor oak will hybridize with the cork oak, and such hybrids have been found in test plantings at Stanford (now removed, sadly). A pure strain of Mount Tabor oak is more valuable than these hybrids, as is often, but not always, the case with oaks.

Mount Tabor oak is held in high esteem in Israel, where the Hebrew name is Alon Hatavor. In many ways, Mount Tabor oak is a parallel species to the Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) in California. Mount Tabor oak is highly recommended for further trial in California, keeping in mind the space and growth habit constraints described previously.