killerplants.com | Plants that Changed History | Plants that Changed History Archives Most Recent

What is one of nature's most unique items?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

December 30, 2003

Sponsored By: Novica.com

Suggested Reading – Plus Country Oxcart & Agate and crystal bottle stoppers: Click here.

It is perhaps one of nature's most unique items--strong, light-weight, resilient, fire-resistant, insulating, capable of absorbing both impact and sound, and durable. Compressed it returns to its original shape, yet it takes to cutting and sanding. It is the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber Linnaeus).

The cork oak is native to the western Mediterranean. The Greeks called the tree phellos. Among their many uses for cork were theatrical boots, kothornos. The thick cork soles elevated certain actors to stand like Greek gods above the remainder of the company.

Cork from Quercus suber Linnaeus

Romans called the tree suber. Fishermen made floats of cork to keep their nets from sinking and sailors attached cork to the drag-lines of anchors. Roman ladies wore shoes made of cork to keep their feet warm in winter. A thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire, John Gerard commented "...which use remains with us even to this day...for warmnesse sake."

Cork hives housed honeybees keeping them warmer in winter and cooler in summer. People even built special stone walls with niches, clapiers, to hold the cork hives; a few walls from the Middle Ages still stand in the French countryside.

Cork is at its most familiar as a stopper. It has only been a few centuries since glass bottles and corks have been the standard means of distributing champagne and wine. But cork and wine have been together for centuries. It is a tradition founded on the suitability of cork to protect the wine.

Fitted slightly larger than the inner diameter of the amphora's throat, the cork sealed the wine inside and air and contaminants outside. Wine from the vineyards of Egypt found buyers in Rome, Lebanon, Carthage, and Greece. Even now, the global community of vintners share their wines stoppered with cork. Wine corks alone comprise over a billion equivalent US dollars to the world economy.

(Compiled from: Natural History, Pliny the Elder, translated John F. Healy, 1991; The Herbal, John Gerard, 1633; "Dry Stone in Centre Var", Eric Kalmar; "Overview of Greek Literature by Genre", Classics 1000, Greek Culture, Dr. N. Norman, University of Georgia; "Report 2001-Early Imperial Roman Amphora Stoppers" Ross Thomas, Quseir Al-Qadim Project, University of Southampton; and "All about Cork", Manton Industrial Cork Products)

Wine wood bottle holder, 'Country Oxcart'

NOVICA®

Hand-crafted by Dicky Johal in India
"I come from the beautiful and romantic hills of Rudurapur. The region has a huge influence of Victorian architecture and I always find inspiration in those wonderful works of art."

Carving mango wood by hand, Dicky Johal creates an old fashioned oxcart. Designed to display a bottle of wine, it brings country chic to any setting. The charming two-wheeled wagon is adorned with rope to resemble an authentic antique. [Tell me more...]

Agate and crystal bottle stoppers, 'Sweet Wine' (pair)

NOVICA®

Hand-crafted by Guena in Brazil
"To me, Novica means an excellent opportunity for people to get to know the extraordinary work people all over the world are capable of making. It is an excellent way for an artisan to exhibit his work without the confinement of borders."

Blue agate and white crystal take shape as the fruit of the vineyard. Shaping colorful clusters of gemstone grapes, Guena adds silvery leaves. They grace corks, to close wine bottles with style. [Tell me more...]