Southern Live Oak Tree ( Acorn )
Quercus virginiana
28.1403, -81.4584
Field Notes
Description:
Quercus virginiana, also known as southern live oak, is a normally evergreen oak tree, native to the southeastern United States. The southern live oak, is particularly iconic of the Old South. The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and there close relatives ( genera Quercus and Lithocarpus, in the Family Fagaceae ). It usually contains a single seed, enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns, vary from 1-6 cm long, and 0.8-4 cm broad. Sweet tapered acorns, produced by the trees, are eaten by birds and mammals, including sapsuckers, mallards, wild turkeys, squirrels, black bears, deer, etc., etc.
Habitat:
Southern live oaks, grow well in salty soils, and in shade, which makes them great competitors against other less tolerant trees. Southern live oaks, are confined to warm parts of the country, though, because of there inability to survive freezing temperatures, these trees grow in the wild, but they are also popular ornamental plants with many southerners. Southern live oaks, are found all around the city of Kissimmee, in the countryside surrounding Kissimmee, and in the state of Florida.
Notes:
I was riding around the city of Kissimmee, and I saw a lot of majestic looking, southern live oak trees. Each southern live oak tree, had some Spanish moss hanging down from some of there limbs. On the ground beneath these trees, were lots and lots of acorns. When you split open the outer shell into two pieces, there is a nut inside, that the birds and animals eat. The color of this nut, is yellow and orange. The branches frequently support other plant species, such as rounded clumps of ball moss, thick drapings of Spanish moss, resurration fern, and parasitic mistletoe.
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