Live Oak
Quercus virginiana
Plant Family: Fagaceae
Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic, stiff, to 12 cm, but many leaves are shorter, dark green above, light gray and downy below.
Bark: Brown-gray, fissured, holding a wide variety of epiphytes on mature trees.
Flowers: Monoecious, small, the male flowers are in hanging terminal catkins, the female flowers are not conspicuous and are further back on the stems.
Fruits: A blackish acorn, to 2.5cm, with a short cup that covers less than one-half of the seed.
Habitat: Uplands and drier habitats throughout Florida, it is the only Florida oak that occurs on the Keys.
Growth Form: Large tree.
Similar Species: Sand Live Oak (Quercus geminata) has leaf margins rolled under, the leaf veins strongly depressed, and it is a much smaller tree when mature.
Comments: Live Oak is an impressively large, long-lived, short-trunked tree with many spreading branches. Its range includes the coastal plain of the Deep South, west to Texas.
