The distributional range of this oak streches across most of western Europe and parts of Asia. In Finland natural oak stands are fairly rare and the species occurs primarily in the south western parts of the country - further north the climatic conditions are not favourable. The pedunculate oak has long been a popular study species in ecological and chemoecological studies, and many species are associated with it. For example, there are 200 species of Lepidoptera feeding exclusively on this oak - a number higher than for any other European tree species. One of these species is Tischeria ekebladella, a moth whose larvae feed in leaf mines inside mature oak leaves.