Plant · P-571

Live Oak

Quercus virginiana

Live Oak is a nearly evergreen, sprawling oak of the southeastern coastal plain that keeps its leaves through winter and drops them only as new growth pushes in spring. Its acorns are sweet and low in tannin, edible straight off the tree, and the seed can even be pressed for a cooking oil - an unusual yield for an oak. A single tree can spread root suckers into a dense clonal thicket 60-plus feet across, which makes it nearly impossible to kill and a strong choice for binding an eroding bank, but the same underground root connections let oak wilt disease move from tree to tree once it takes hold in a stand. It tolerates salt spray, hurricanes and occasional flooding better than almost any other oak, which is likely what lets it dominate coastal forest.