Kermes oak

The Kermes oak or prinari owes its name to the medieval prinario, diminutive of the privet tree. There is also the root of the place name Prinila of N. Corfu (an area full of kermes).
The coccifera oak (Quercus coccifera, L.) is a species of evergreen sclerophyllous oak with a wide spread in the countries around the Mediterranean.
Its fruit, as in the other species of the wider family of the tree, is the acorn, which is a diminutive of the word valanos. From valano comes valaneio (whence the village of Valaneio), Late Latin balneum, Italian bagno, our well-known bath!
In April, the new sprouts come out, the pre-sprouts, which later become hard with thorns. The privet is considered a very hard wood and is used for the manufacture of durable tools such as shovels, pickaxes and sledgehammers, as well as handles that can still be seen in the hands of old people in the villages of Corfu.
The privet was the ideal fuel to fire the oven and also made very nice coals for the barbecue. The goats eat a lot of thistles and they used to collect the needles in sacks and feed the pigs, sheep and turkeys in the winter.