Live Oaks

Live oaks are not 'true' evergreens because they do lose their leaves immediately before new ones comes out in spring. Those leaves are shiny on top and pale gray on the underside. They can live for hundreds of years. The "Angel Oak" on Johns Island (just outside Charleston, SC) is estimated to be 400-500 years old and has a 28 foot circumference. The "Cleveland Oak" on Avery Island, Louisiana is about 300 years old with a 23 foot circumference. [Pictured below is the Cleveland Oak, visited by President Cleveland in 1891.]

Live oaks are native to the Southeastern part of the United States. They can be found in the extreme southeast of Virginia, along a thin strip of coast in the Carolinas, the southern 1/4 of Georgia, all of Florida, about half of Texas and a strip along southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Live oaks are often hosts to Spanish moss, ball moss, mistletoe and Resurrection ferns. [Pictured below are close ups of Live Oak bark.]