Quercus subgenus Cerris is one of the two subgenera into which the genus Quercus was divided in a 2017 classification. It contains about 140 species divided among three sections. It may be called the Old World clade or the mid-latitude clade; all species are native to Eurasia and North Africa.

An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; it includes some 500 species, both deciduous and evergreen. Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene. Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades, but many oak species hybridise freely, making the genus's history difficult to resolve.