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Live Oak

Quercus sp.

Photo by Jacob Gorneau
Published on Project Noah
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34.6781, -120.13

Field Notes

Description:

This spotting is a potpourri of Californian dry land plants, commonly known as Chaparral, is a biome of various plants along the dry land coast of Southern California. Chaparral comes from the Spanish word, Chaparro, which means "small [or] dwarf oak." I am focusing on the Live Oaks, which is hard to determine which species without looking at the leaves.

Habitat:

Coastal and Inland Chaparral of Southwestern California.

Notes:

Thanks to S Frazier, Ava T-B, and Samantha for putting up with me!

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (21)
Jacob Gorneau
This spotting was before I knew about the website, so I apologize to you all for any miscooperation I may have given you. CNPS has still not emailed me on the subject, so I am guessing they are very busy! After doing some search on the internet, I definitely think it is Coast Live Oak: http://www.plantsystematics.org/imgs/kcn2/r/Fagaceae_Quercus_agrifolia_1558.html Thank you all so much, S Frazier, Ava, and Samantha!
Jacob Gorneau
Thanks for the information S Frazier! Sorry I have been so late responding to the comment! I am uploading clearer photos now.
Scott Frazier
Yes I think that is a good suggestion. Good luck! BTW, I got my information on the localities from this website: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/pacificsouthwest/FigueroaMountain/index.shtml
Jacob Gorneau
@Ava T-B: Thanks so much!!! I have just sent an email to them!
Ava T-B
I've been thinking about this spotting. If you show this picture to someone in your local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, they will be able to identify the trees. http://www.cnps.org/cnps/about/
Jacob Gorneau
Los Padres National Forest is 2 hours 40 minutes away from Los Olivos (208 miles)...Coast Live Oaks have too thorny of leaves to be this species, I presume.
Scott Frazier
Sage brush is a shrub, these look like trees in the foreground, and from the links above Oaks do occur in that area, but I'm not positive because they are just too far away :-) The National forest is certainly close Los Olivos...
Jacob Gorneau
@SFrazier: Thanks for the information. Maybe I can add this photo a couple of times focusing on a different type of wildlife. Although they may be oaks, they seem to be more bushy, like sagebrush. Could it be sagebrush?
Scott Frazier
Maybe these are oaks? I'm just guessing here, Quercus agrifolia - Coast live oak? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaparral http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_agrifolia . Was this in or near Los Padres National Forest? It has two major forest types: chaparral (68%) and forested lands (30%). Forested land includes mixed evergreen forests, oak woodland, pinyon-juniper woodland, and conifer forest.
Scott Frazier
Well that's plural and a species spotting should try to focus on one species. The trees, being closest probably, have the best chance of being identified, I think. You can of course describe the habitat and the assemblage of plants that might make it up under habitat and notes if you want and if you come up with that information. Are there any parks nearby that include this kind of ecosystem? If there are and there's a website perhaps they list the tree species. It looks like the diversity of trees won't be very high so it might be easy to select the correct one.
Jacob Gorneau
Should I just keep it as California dryland plants?
Ava T-B
Yes! Dry-lands are remarkably similar to look at even though the species are completely different in different parts of the world.
Jacob Gorneau
Thanks! I am sometimes reminded of the Serengeti Plains!
Ava T-B
The trees may be live oaks, but they are too far to tell, and the greyer brush behind them may be a plant community called chapparell made up of several fire-dependent plants like sage, lemonaidberry, manzanita, etc. California dry-lands plant ecology is fascinating.
SamanthaCraven
Hi jgorneau, whilst the Californian countryside looks gorgeous - organisms and identification being the focus of PN, I'm going ask you to delete the first two photos. Thanks for your understanding and look forward to more of your spots :]

Spotted for Missions

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Southern California Wildlife
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2012 Best Wildlife Photo
Photographed
PublishedJanuary 26, 2012

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