Live Oak

Quercus virginiana, or Southern live oak, is an evergreen species of oak native to the southeastern United States. The silhouette is unmistakable even from a distance—the green crown of leaves, the knobby, gnarly trunk, the dark umbrella of furrowed branches twisting invitingly down to earth. The very shape of it transports you. Planted in rows to form alleys, or sprouting up from an acorn unbidden and living wild for hundreds of years, by their size and sheer rootedness, live oaks are living links to the past. They’re living links to the future, too—home to lizards, squirrels, blue jays, night-blooming orchids and generations of resurrection fern to come.