Photos of Quercus virginiana, Live Oak

Quercus virginiana, Live Oak, is one of the iconic broadleaf evergreen trees of eastern North America from Virginia, to Florida to the Gulf Coast, often festooned with draping Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usnoides). In William Bartram's Travels (1791, p. 85) he writes, "It bears a prodigious quantity of fruit; the acorn is small, but sweet and agreeable to the taste when roasted, and is food for almost all animals. The Indians obtain from it a sweet oil, which they use in the cooking of hommony, rice, &c., and they also roast them in hot embers, eating them as we do chesnuts." Tens of thousands of acres of Live Oak were reserved by Congressional acts in 1794 and 1817 for the Navy as a strategic supply of timber for ship-building. In 1879 and 1895 all naval timber reserves of Live Oak were returned to public use. Images 1-39 are from Savannah, Georgia. Images 40-51 are from the Suwannee River State Park, Florida. Images 53-55 are form Biloxie, Mississippi.

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