Live oak

Last updated November 04, 2023

Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus Quercus that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage.^[1] These oaks are generally not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks.^[1]

The name live oak comes from the fact that evergreen oaks remain green and "live" throughout winter, when other oaks are dormant and leafless. The name is used mainly in North America, where evergreen oaks are widespread in warmer areas along the Atlantic coast from southeast Virginia to Florida, west along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana and Mexico, and across the southwest to California.

Evergreen oak species are also common in parts of southern Europe and south Asia, and are included in this list for the sake of completeness. These species, although not having "live" in their common names in their countries of origin, are colloquially called live oaks when cultivated in North America.

When the term live oak is used in a specific rather than general sense, it most commonly refers to the group of species under Quercus sect. Virentes, which includes the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana), the first species so named, and an icon of the Old South.^[2]

According to the Live Oak Society the oldest southern live oak is believed to be the Seven Sisters Oak located in Mandeville, Louisiana with an estimated age of 500–1,000 years.^[3]

The southern live oak is the official state tree of Georgia.

The Seal of Texas includes a live oak branch.

A small grove of live oaks on a prairie is known as a mott.^[4]

Wood and lumber

Live oak was widely used in early American butt shipbuilding. Because of the trees' short height and low-hanging branches, lumber from live oaks was used in curved parts of the frame, such as knee braces (single-piece, L-shaped braces that spring inward from the side and support the deck), in which the grain runs perpendicular to structural stress, making for exceptional strength. Live oaks were not generally used for planking because the curved and often convoluted shape of the tree did not lend itself to being milled to planking of any length. Red oak and white oak were generally used for planking on vessels, because those trees grow straight and tall, with straight trunks long enough for planks.

Loggers had cut down most of the live oak trees in southern Europe by the latter half of the 19th century. Live oak timber from the United States was similarly sought and exported until metal-hulled commercial vessels became the norm in the early part of the 20th century. Live oak lumber is rarely used for furniture, because it warps and twists while drying.

The wood of live oaks continues to be used occasionally in shipbuilding—and in tool handles for its strength, energy absorption, and density, although modern composites are often substituted with good effect. Dry Southern live oak lumber has a specific gravity of 0.88, among the highest of North American hardwoods.

List of evergreen species in genus Quercus

Section Quercus. The white oaks – Europe, Asia, North Africa, North America, styles short; acorns mature in six months, sweet or slightly bitter, inside of acorn shell is hairless
- Quercus arizonica – Arizona white oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus fusiformis – (also Quercus virginiana var. fusiformis) Texas live oak – south central North America
- Quercus geminata – sand live oak – southeastern North America
- Quercus greggii – Gregg oak – Mexico
- Quercus hinckleyi – Hinckley oak – Texas
- Quercus ilex – Holm oak – southern Europe
- Quercus minima – dwarf live oak – southeastern North America
- Quercus oblongifolia – Mexican blue oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus polymorpha – Mexican white oak or Monterrey oak – Mexico
- Quercus pungens – sandpaper oak – south central North America
- Quercus rotundifolia − holm oak − southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa
- Quercus turbinella – shrub live oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus virginiana – southern live oak – southeastern North America
Section Cerris. Europe, Asia, north Africa. Styles long; acorns mature in 18 months, very bitter, inside of acorn shell is hairless or slightly hairy
- Quercus calliprinos – Palestine oak – western Asia
- Quercus coccifera – Kermes oak – southern Europe
- Quercus semecarpifolia – Himalayan oak – eastern Asia
- Quercus suber – Cork oak – southwestern Europe
Section Protobalanus – Southwest US, California coastal ranges and northwest Mexico, styles short, acorns mature in 18 months, very bitter, inside of acorn shell is woolly
- Quercus cedrosensis — Cedros Island oak — Baja California
- Quercus chrysolepis – canyon live oak – southwestern North America, especially coastal ranges of California
- Quercus palmeri – Palmer oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus tomentella – Channel Island oak – Channel Islands of California
- Quercus vacciniifolia – huckleberry oak – California and southwestern North America
Section Lobatae. The red oaks – North, Central and South America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months, very bitter, inside of acorn shell is woolly
- Quercus agrifolia – coast live and sharpacorn oaks – California and Mexico
- Quercus canbyi – Canby oak – Mexico
- Quercus emoryi – Emory oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus hemisphaerica – laurel oak – southeastern North America
- Quercus humboldtii – South American oak – northern South America
- Quercus laurifolia – swamp laurel oak – southeastern U.S.
- Quercus hypoleucoides – silverleaf oak – southwestern North America
- Quercus parvula – Santa Cruz Island and Shreve oaks – California
- Quercus rysophylla – loquat leaf oak – Mexico
- Quercus wislizeni – interior live oak – California and Mexico

See the list of Quercus species for a fuller listing of oaks, including deciduous species.

Related Research Articles

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 in 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.

Quercus rubra, the northern red oak, is an oak tree in the red oak group. It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introduced to small areas in Western Europe, where it can frequently be seen cultivated in gardens and parks. It prefers good soil that is slightly acidic. Often simply called red oak, northern red oak is so named to distinguish it from southern red oak (Q. falcata), also known as the Spanish oak. Northern Red Oak is sometimes called champion oak.

Quercus muehlenbergii, the chinquapinoak, is a deciduous species of tree in the white oak group. The species was often called Quercus acuminata in older literature. Quercus muehlenbergii is native to eastern and central North America. It ranges from Vermont to Minnesota, south to the Florida panhandle, and west to New Mexico in the United States. In Canada it is only found in southern Ontario, and in Mexico it ranges from Coahuila south to Hidalgo.

Quercus velutina, the black oak, is a species of oak in the red oak group, native and widespread in eastern and central North America. It is sometimes called the eastern black oak.

Quercus virginiana, also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South. Many very large and old specimens of live oak can be found today in the Deep South region of the United States.

Quercus agrifolia, the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is generally a medium-sized tree. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section of oaks.

Quercus fusiformis, commonly known as escarpment live oak, plateau live oak, plateau oak, or Texas live oak, is an evergreen or nearly evergreen tree. Its native range includes the Quartz Mountains and Wichita Mountains in southwestern Oklahoma, through Texas, to the Mexican states of Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo León.

Quercus laurifolia is a medium-sized semi-evergreen oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae. It is native to the southeastern and south-central the United States.

The fox squirrel, also known as the eastern fox squirrel or Bryant's fox squirrel, is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America. Despite the differences in size and coloration, it is sometimes mistaken for American red squirrels or eastern gray squirrels in areas where the species co-exist.

Quercus gambelii, with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak.

Quercus chrysolepis, commonly termed canyon live oak, canyon oak, golden cup oak or maul oak, is a North American species of evergreen oak that is found in Mexico and in the western United States, notably in the California Coast Ranges. This tree is often found near creeks and drainage swales growing in moist cool microhabitats. Its leaves are a glossy dark green on the upper surface with prominent spines; a further identification arises from the leaves of canyon live oak being geometrically flat.

Quercus vacciniifolia, the huckleberry oak, is a member of the Protobalanus section of genus Quercus. It has evergreen foliage, short styles, very bitter acorns that mature in 18 months, and a woolly acorn shell interior.

Quercus turbinella is a North American species of oak known by the common names shruboak, turbinella oak, shrub live oak, and gray oak. It is native to Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada in the western United States. It also occurs in northern Mexico.

Quercus arizonica, the Arizona white oak, is a North American tree species in the beech family. It is found in Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Durango.

Quercus pungens, commonly known as the sandpaper oak or scrub oak, is a North American species evergreen or sub-evergreen shrub or small tree in the white oak group. There is one recognised variety, Quercus pungens var. vaseyana, the Vasey shin oak. Sandpaper oak hybridizes with gray oak in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas.

Quercus oblongifolia, commonly known as the Mexican blue oak, Arizona blue oak, Blue live oak or Sonoran blue oak, is an evergreen small tree or large shrub in the white oak group.

Quercus geminata, commonly called sand live oak, is an evergreen oak tree native to the coastal regions of the subtropical southeastern United States, along the Atlantic Coast from southern Florida northward to southeastern Virginia and along the Gulf Coast westward to southern Mississippi, on seacoast dunes and on white sands in evergreen oak scrubs.

The Southeastern conifer forests are a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the southeastern United States. It is the largest conifer forest ecoregion east of the Mississippi River. It is also the southernmost instance of temperate coniferous forest within the Nearctic realm.

Quercus subgenus Quercus is one of the two subgenera into which the genus Quercus was divided in a 2017 classification. It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be called the New World clade or the high-latitude clade; most species are native to the Americas, the others being found in Eurasia and northernmost North Africa.

References

1 2 Miller, George Oxford (7 April 2006). Landscaping with Native Plants of Texas. Voyageur Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780760325391 . Retrieved 20 October 2010.
↑ Bender, Steve, ed. (January 2004). "Quercus virginiana". The Southern Living Garden Book (2nd ed.). Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House. ISBN 0-376-03910-8.
↑ Guion, William (Summer 2018). "Before America Was America". American Forests. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
↑ Wheat, Pam; Whorton, Brenda (November 1990). Clues from the Past: A Resource Book on Archeology. Hendrick-Long Pub. Co. p. 18. ISBN 9780937460658 . Retrieved 20 October 2010.

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[Miller2006-1] 1 2 Miller, George Oxford (7 April 2006). Landscaping with Native Plants of Texas. Voyageur Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780760325391 . Retrieved 20 October 2010.

[southern-2] Bender, Steve, ed. (January 2004). "Quercus virginiana". The Southern Living Garden Book (2nd ed.). Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House. ISBN 0-376-03910-8.

[Guion-3] Guion, William (Summer 2018). "Before America Was America". American Forests. Retrieved 2020-11-22.

[WheatWhorton1990-4] Wheat, Pam; Whorton, Brenda (November 1990). Clues from the Past: A Resource Book on Archeology. Hendrick-Long Pub. Co. p. 18. ISBN 9780937460658 . Retrieved 20 October 2010.

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