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Live Oak, Quercus virginiana

Go to - Landscape Trees
Landscape Shrubs

Family - Fagaceae

Natural Habitat - Coastal & Inland Hammocks, Floodplains, on moist sandy soils.

This native tree has large, often horizontal spreading branches and reaches 50 to 60 feet in height x 100 feet or more in spread, with a stout, buttressed trunk.

Bark is reddish-brown to black and deeply furrowed, leaves are alternate, oblong to elliptical, dark green & leathery with entire margins. The leaves of "sucker" shoots and saplings may be shallowly lobed or toothed.

Flowers in spring are on catkins, as is typical of the Oaks. Fruit (acorns) mature the same season. Acorns of the Live oak are an important wildlife food source and the tree is host to a number of epiphytic species, including native orchids & Spanish moss.

U.S.D.A. Zones 7 - 11. Live oak excels as a shade tree for large scale landscapes, the acorns attract wildlife.

Full sun to partial shade, prefers rich, moist, sandy, well drained slightly acidic soil, but tolerates alkaline pH. Very salt tolerant with a high wind resistance.

Live Oak is a long lived tree, with its age measured in centuries. Should be pruned when young to develop a single trunk and to eliminate branches which form a deep "V" angle in relation to the trunk. Young Live oak trees are fast growing under good conditions, adding up to 3 feet of height in a single year.

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