Text Box: Habitat-                            Coast Live Oak is an exemplar tree when describing an archetypical tree species that has emerged in California.  They can grow in open ranges or in dense stands.  And whereas oaks, genus Quercus,  are one of the most diverse group of tree species in North America, their most important contributions to their ecosystems are the ones made to the surrounding wildlife (McShea 2002).  Especially during hot weather, seeking the shade is “one way to appreciate the architecture of an old coast live oak (Keator 1998).”  Visitors, new and old, can see the “mystical beauty and the enchanted landscapes” where coast live oak resides (Pavlik 2000).                  California is famous for weather based on its Mediterranean climate, and the coastline sets the best example.  Seasonal rain in sufficient amounts for plants to flourish and mostly lacking the temperature extremes of over 85’F or below freezing define this particular ecosystem.  The coast live oak can withstand higher temperatures upwards to 100’F due to their specialized leaves  (Pavlik 2000).  Coast live oak tends to live in areas where fog can reach to relive the trees from summer heat.                   Coast live oak can be found on not-to-dry hillsides or on valley floors usually in areas below 300 ft. towards the north and up to 5000 ft. in the south (McShea 2002).  An ideal location for a coast live oak would be an area that can access a water table and have access the full amounts of sunlight since they are mostly intolerant of shade and slow-growing in dry sites (Miller 1985).  Yet McShea and Healy would differ in opinion that coast live oaks can actually be “shade tolerant throughout their life.”  They also point out that these oaks are “very tolerant of hot fires, due to thick bark” and most tolerant to three oaks associated with coast live oak: blue oak, interior live oak, and valley oak (McShea 2002).

Text Box: Distribution-                  Coast live oak can be found, generally speaking, approximately 30-40’ N latitude along the North American Pacific Coast (mostly California).  Although they don’t seem to thrive immediately next to the shoreline, they are endemic to about a 50-mile wide swath that runs up and down the coast line of California with some migrant trees found in Solano County and the Sacramento River Delta region (Pavlik 2000).  These trees can be found starting north in Sonoma County all the way down south to the San Pedro mountains in Baja  California, found in most abundant and the largest sizes just south of the San Francisco Bay (Miller 1985).   Whereas the Wikipedia (2005) will pull the range further up north into coastal Mendocino County.

Text Box: Figure 10- Distribution of Quercus agrifolia, aka coast live oak   (USGS 2005)

Text Box:              California is famous for weather based on its Mediterranean climate, and the coastline sets the best example.  Seasonal rain in sufficient amounts for plants to flourish and mostly lacking the temperature extremes of over 85’F or below freezing define this particular ecosystem.  The coast live oak can withstand higher temperatures upwards to 100’F due to their specialized leaves  (Pavlik 2000).                     Coast live oak can be found on not-to-dry hillsides or on valley floors usually in areas below 300 ft. towards the north and up to 5000 ft. in the south (McShea 2002).  An ideal location for a coast live oak would be an area that can access a water table and have access the full amounts of sunlight, and the hilly watersheds of coastal California provide them the criteria.                By understanding the natural geography of California, inferences can be made with regard to surrounding biomes that can explain what some limiting factors may be for the survival of coast live oak.  The barrier to the north are the great conifer forests, competitors for sunlight  these oaks need to thrive.  The southern desert barrier lacks the water requirement.  Discussion could arise  with regard to the eastern barrier of central California, for it  had access to water table and plentiful sunlight,  but the average temperature is significantly higher here.

Text Box:                 Over 200 million years ago, when the super-continent Pangaea began to pull apart, this is probably when we begin to see flowering plants emerge.  Possibly, Gondwanaland may have possessed ancestors of Nothofagus and Fagus (beeches) lineages (Keator 1998)                  The earliest evidence of Quercus doesn’t extend as far back as many of the beeches and chestnuts, occurring some time in the Eocene, between 40 and 56 million years ago (Keator 1998).                  Since the genus Quercus lineage is nearly identical in range to the Fagaceae family lineage, it has been hypothesized that oaks “had hit upon a successful design” based upon their extensive distribution and multiplicity of forms (Keator 1998).                  Hybrid fertility can be seen as a challenge for establishing proper classification strategies for these plants.  Since plants are always changing and nature rarely give definitive boundaries, and plants are ever-changing (Keator 1998).              Currently, Quercus is the most diverse genus within the family Fagaceae (Manos 2001).

Text Box: Description-                                Coast live oak varies often in both height and width.  They are an evergreen species of oak with dense shrubbery, new leaves pushing off the old in healthy, persistent growth.  They are generally 15-23 meters tall with the tallest recorded being up to 28 meters and 45 meters across. (Miller 1985).    The hemispherical crown  grows above a trunk which divides into crooked limbs that tend to spread more horizontally which eventually may cause it to come low and close to the ground (Pavlik 2000).                   The leaves are cup-shaped with a distinct, waxy, darker green  top for sun absorption and the underside is lighter green most often having tiny hairs, often in dense tufts.  The outer edges of the leaves have short spines, and the texture of the leaf is tough, smooth, and hard (Pavlik 2000).   They average 3 cm and range in between 2-10 cm in length (Miller 1985).                  Tiny strings of yellow to red flowers grow and hang down alongside leaves.  Coast live oak has slender male catkins and female flowers which both appear on the same tree during a short period during the spring (MMPC 2005).  The male flowers can grow in lengths of about 6-10 cm long (TERRA 2003).                  Acorns of coast live oak grow from the pollinated flowers and mature in only one growing season.  They grow about 2-4 cm in length and are conically shaped.  The part of the acorn connected to the twig has very small light-brown scales encompassing the lower third portion.   The conical tip grows from green the a reddish brown in maturity before it drops during the winter.  The husk decays and absorbs water from fall and/or winter rain, given that it is not preyed upon by insects, bird, or mammals (Pavlik  2000).                  Of the survivors, out from the tip the cotyledons grow upward, which are the initial two seed leaves that sprout up, the largest portion of the embryo storing the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats required for the initial growth of the seedlings before turning into true leaves (Pavlik 2000).   If the leaves get enough sunlight, it can begin to photosynthesize and create the nutrients essential for a healthy  root, leaf, and stem structure.  Out of the base grows a large tap-root, one major root to begin its strong foundation of outward-expanding roots, which continue the feeding of the essential nutrients.  The seedling needs adequate sunlight, water, and protection from herbivory for over a year to establish their roots, stems, and leaves and continue their slow transformation into a sapling (Pavlik 2000).                   The coast live oak sapling trunk begins as smooth and whitish-gray and changes colors to a darker red and brown as it grows into an older tree.   The darker coloring emerges like gaping fault lines, and green moss may establish a symbiotic relation on the trunk and branches.  The trunk of a coast live oak generally grows between 0.6 and 1.2 m in diameter (Miller 1985).                  The name agrifolia means “holly-leafed,” because the leave do sort of look like holly.  By looking for certain combinations of features, one can identify Quercus agrifolia quite readily.  The most telling feature, however, is by examination of the specific features of the leaves containing the lighter shade and tufts.  This distinguishes it from a tree with similar features.                  

Text Box: Evolution-                  Oaks in general are a relatively recent emergence in terms of plant evolution.  They may have emerged in the same time path of hominoid evolution, as the first ancestral primate is thought to have emerged 60 million years ago (Campbell 2002).  The oldest known Quercus fossils date back to about 45 million years ago whereas their distant relative Nothofagus emerged some 90 million years ago (Keator 1998).                Coast live oak’s taxonomic classification is based on particular characteristic.  A flowering tree, Q. agrifolia is placed among the dicots in class Magnoliopsida based on their seed and flowering properties.  They are then put into the wind-pollinated group, sub-class Hamamelidae before being put into the beech and chestnut family, Fagaceae.  The family Fagaceae consists of about 6-8 different genera and between 800-1,000 different species (U W Madison 2003).

Text Box:                  Coast live oak can be found in many different natural communities, such as northern and southern mixed evergreen forest, coast live oak woodland, valley oak woodland, and Englemann oak woodland (Pavlik 2000).                   Obviously, coast live oak plant associations may also vary depending upon location.  In the north, they associate with California black oak, pacific madrone, tanoak, and California laurel; and in the south they associate with Jeffrey pine, manzanita, chamisa, California scrub oak, and other live oaks (USFS  2005), and frequently interbreeding and hybridization occurs within the Quercus genus.                    Associations between coast live oak and herbivorous terrestrial animals.  Deer, gophers, grasshoppers and cutworms threaten these oak seedling, and weevils, moth larvae, scrub jays and squirrels feed on the acorn crops of the mature tree (USFS 2005).                   However, one of the most important relationships with another organism is it’s mychorhizzal relationships with certain kinds of fungus.  The mycorrhizae aid with water uptake, especially during drier conditions (USFS 2005).  This type of relationship is actually quite common amongst the plant and fungus kingdoms.   

Text Box: Natural History-              Oaks are monoecious, having both staminate (male) or pistilate (female) flowers on a single plant.  The mal, petal-less flowers, or catkins, are more distinguishable because they hang down like strings of pearls.  The female flowers are not as recognizable during the spring bloom, but the extending stigmas are most predominate  at the future site of acorn and seed production (Keator 1998).  To prevent self-pollination, oaks have timing mechanisms the produce the released pollen and receptive stigmas at different times (Keator 1998).                  An oak seedling (Figure ) can reach heights of 70 cm in the field and have reached heights of 1.5-2.5m in ideal nursery conditions (FEIS 2005).  These trees are relatively long-lived with life-spans ranging from 125 to 250 years (Mcshea 2002).                                  

Text Box: Figure 3– Coast live oak catkins (Charters 2005)      

Text Box: Figure 2– Coast live oak sapling (By author, 2005)

Text Box: Figure 4- Quercus agrifolia acorn         (More Mesa Preservation Coalition 2005)

Text Box: Figure 5- Coast live oak home range/woodland   (Pavlik 2000)

Text Box: Figure 6– Coast live oak tree along a hillside             (Pavlik 2000)

Text Box: Figure 7– Acorn growth in Quercus (Keator 1998)

Text Box: Figure 8- Q.Agrifolia seedling (Keator 1998)

Text Box: Figure 9– Phylogenetic hypotheses for Fagaceae.  A is based on morphology and B is based on molecular systematics.  (Manos et al. 2001)

Text Box: Figure 10– Approximate number of species within each genus is noted in parentheses.        (Manos et al. 2001)

Text Box: Other Interesting Issues-                  In California, coast live oak was one of the two first trees in California to be described in western history (Peattie 1991).                   Live oak acorns were harvested for diet by at least 12 different native American tribes and later Spanish mission builders reduced the wood as a charcoal for firing the kilns to make mortar (Pavlik 2000).  The charcoal proved beneficial for the gunpowder, bakery, and electric power industries and eventually further use caused for some of the more majestic trees and forests to make way for cities like San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey, and San Diego.  These magnificent trees often portray the exemplar tree of the United States because it often serves the set for many motion picture, making it the  “American tree best known all around the world (Peattie 1991).  An endemic species, coast live oak is California’s delegate to the  great Oak genus, which symbolizes the qualities perceived by more than just the author:

Text Box: Species name: Quercus agrifolia


Geography 316:  Biogeography     In progress  05/26/2005
 

“Oak, the tree of Kings and Rulers, is the most powerful tree; it is “the highest of trees”, as its Ogham name says. Oak was considered one of the main trees in Druidic tradition. It is tree of power, of authority, of endurance and triumph. Oak is wood with strong male nature. The potent character of this tree reveals itself in association with various Thunder Gods, such as Zeus, Jupiter and Thor.

It's important to emphasize that the Oak power is not the power of simple 'strength'. It implies spiritual, higher power, which can be granted only by gods themselves; and because of that the Oak tree often represents the divine nature of royal authority. As a King Tree, Oak dominates in many areas and various aspects of magic, but especially in those where active effort and protection is required. Oak tree is wise and noble guardian, the protector of all lesser trees.

The Oak power may seem too severe and brutal, for it lacks preciseness and accuracy, but this 'flaw' is easily compensated with its triumphal spiritual light - the Otherworld Light, which no evil can resist.

Keywords: royalty, power, domination, leadership, strength, divine spirit, guardian, protector, endurance, triumph, male principle, active creation, prosperity, guidance from Otherworld, non-precise but right, connection to higher Worlds, divine order, thunder and lightning (GreenOak, 2004).”

© GreenOak, 2004  http://www.unfading.net
Text Box: Bibliography-   Cal Flora and Michael Charters. (2005). Coast Live Oak.  [Online].  Available: http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/coastliveoak.html [May 25, 2005]. California Oak Foundation. (1996). California Oak Woodland Community. [Online].  PDF Available: http://www.californiaoaks.org/ExtAssets/300SpeciesList.pdf  [May 25, 2005]. California Polytechnic University and Danielle De Rome. (March 1997).  Coastal Live Oak Woodlands.  [Online].  Available: http://polyland.lib.calpoly.edu/overview/Archives/derome/woodlands.html [May 25, 2005]. Campbell, Neil A. and Jane B. Reece. 2002.  Biology, 6th Ed. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings. Cuyamaca College and Ornamental Horticulture 170. (2005). Quercus agrifolia. [Online].  Available: http://www.cuyamaca.net/oh170/Characteristic%20Pages/Quercus%20agrifolia.asp [May 25, 2005]. Green Oak. (2004). Symbolism of Oak. [Online]. Available: http://www.unfading.net/oak.html [May 25, 2005].  Keator, G.  1998. The Life of an Oak- An Intimate Portrait.  pp. 102-107, 125, 145, 182-197. Berkeley: Heyday Books. Manor House Arboretum. (2002). Coast Live Oak or Encina. [Online]. Northern Pennine Club. Available: http://www.pennine.demon.co.uk/Arboretum/Quag.htm [May 25, 2005]. Manos, P.S., Z.K. Zhou, and C.H. Cannon. 2001. International Journal of Plant Science. 162(6): 1361-1379. “Systematics of Fagaceae: Phylogenetic Tests of Reproductive Trait Evolution.”  The University of Chicago. Mcshea, W.J. and W.M. Healy, eds. 2002. Oak Forest Ecosystems- Ecology and Management for Wildlife. pp. 282-283. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Miller, H. and S. Lamb.  1985. Oaks of North America. pp. 297-300. Happy Camp, California: Naturegraph Publishers, Inc. More Mesa Preservation Coaliton. (2005). Coast Live Oak. [Online]. Available: http://www.moremesa.org/mesa_np_oak.htm [May 25, 2005]. National Park Labs of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. (2004). Plant Field Guide- Coast Live Oak.  [Online]. National Park Service. Available: http://www.nps.gov/goga/parklabs/library/plantguide/green-brown/liveoak.htm [May 25, 2005]. Pavlik, B.M., P.C.Muick, S.G. Johnson, and M. Popper. 2000. Oaks if California. pp. 25-27. Olivos, California: Cachuma Press. Peattie, D.C. 1991.  A Natural History of Western Trees. pp. 447-452. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Steinberg, Peter D.; Howard, Janet L. 2002. Quercus agrifolia. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [ 2005, May 24]. TERRA, The Earth Restoration and Reforestation Alliance. (2003). National Champion Coast Live Oak. [Online]. Available: http://www.championtrees.org/champions/oakcoastlive.htm [May 25, 2005]. University of Wisconsin at Madison. (2003). Plant Systematics Collection.  [Online].  Available: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu:16080/courses/systematics/index.html [May 25, 2005]. US Geological Survey and Elbert L. Little. (2004). Digital Representations of Tree Species Range Maps from "Atlas of United States Trees" by Elbert L. Little, Jr. (and other publications). [Online]. Distribution Map Available: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/queragri.pdf [May 25, 2005].   send comments to bholzman@sfsu.edu Geog 316 homepage  Back to Geography home page   Back to SFSU homepage   

The Biogeography of Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)

By Koji M Tessien, student in Geography 316, Spring 2005

Kingdom:

Plantae

Division:

Magnoliophyta

Class:

Magnoliopsida

Order:

Fagales

Family:

Fagaceae

Genus:

Quercus