Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Live oak is a large tree that reaches heights of 65 to 85 feet. It has a wide-spreading crown and is buttressed and flared at the base of the trunk. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, and may persist on the tree through winter until they gradually fall as new leaves emerge in the spring. The leaves are 2 to 5 inches long by ½ to 2 ½ inches wide. The narrowly to broadly elliptical shaped leaves are usually stiff and leathery. The upper surface is shiny, dark green. The leaves are dull grayish green underneath. The leaf base is tapering and the tip is short-pointed to rounded. The margin is smooth and slightly wavy. |
| Twigs: | The slender, gray twigs are pubescent. As with all oaks, twigs end in multiple terminal buds. |
| Bark: | The dark brown to reddish-brown bark is thick with shallow furrows and roughly ridged, eventually becoming blocky with age. |
| Flowers: | The inconspicuous flowers are brown in color. |
| Fruit: | The acorns are ¾ to 1 inch long, broadest at the base to almost uniformly wide and rounded to pointed at the tip. Acorns are light brown within the cap that covers ¼ of the dark nut. The largest part of the acorn is dark brown to black and shiny. They occur solitary or in clusters of three to five nuts, and they mature in one season on the current year's branchlets. |
| Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List: There are two other oaks on our list that have unlobed leaves: |
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