Identifying Features:
Live (Evergreen)
Oaks
Leaves are wavy, toothed, thick, waxy, leathery.
Buds and leaves cluster near twig tips.
Produces acorns.
Coast Live Oak:
Highly convex leaves
Dark bark
Not Coast Live
Oak:
Deeply lobed leaves - deciduous oaks.
Light bark - most likely Coast Scrub Oak
Flat leaves - any of a number of live oaks.
Images
(All
of these images come from the CalFlora Website)
A
Coast Live Oak with its classic, sweeping canopy.
Photographer:
Charles
Webber
Note the catkins and highly convex leaves clustered at the twig tip.
Photographer: Charles Webber
The very narrow acorn of the Coast Live Oak.
Photographer: Brother Alfred Brousseau
Where are they found?
It's not called the Coast Live Oak for nothing! This tree is found along the Pacific Coast ranges from north of the SF Bay Area down to Baja California. Sometimes it gets further in to the California Central Valley along river systems.
If you find a group of this tree, also look for:
Mixed
evergreen forests:
Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa)
Engelmann oak (Quercus engelmannii)
Valley oak (Q. lobata)
Blue oak (Q. douglasii)
California black oak (Q. kelloggii)
California
bay (Umbellularia
californica)
Grey pine (Pinus sabiniana)
Knobcone pine (P. attenuata
Redwood
(Sequoia sempervirens)
Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii)
Tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflora)
California boxelder (Acer negundo ssp. californicum)
In
southern California chaparral:
Canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepis)
In
riparian communities:
Western sycamore (Plantus racemosa)
White alder (Alnus rhombifolia)
Red alder (A. rubra)
Succession Status
Coast Live Oak is shade tolerant, but also grows well in sun. This makes it very adaptable to various successional scenarios. Coast Live Oak climaxes over Blue and California Black Oaks, but gives way to California Bay in some areas of coastal northern California. In mixed evergreen forest, Coast Live Oak is seral (gives way to) various climax conifers.
Ecological Use
Coast Live Oak is an important species. It provides habitat and food for a wide range of animals.
Black bear and Black-tailed deer use stands of Coast Live Oak for habitat. Some ranges of Coast Live Oak have been shown to provide winter habitat for over 30 different species of birds. In South Coast Ranges the density of birds was over 250 birds per acre!
Black-tail deer also eat the leaves. The acorns of this tree provide food for black bear, black-tail deer, many species of birds including scrub jays as well as many rodents and squirrels. Pocket gophers eat the roots.
Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)
