Live oak

Southern live oak Quercus virginiana

Description

Any North American evergreen oak, such as Quercus virginiana (southern U.S. and Mexico) or Quercus agrifolia (California). The light brown wood of the live oak tree is strong and hard. Its wood was once highly valued by shipbuilders. Now it is mainly grown as a shade tree.

Synonyms and Related Terms

encino; southern live oak (Quercus virginiana); coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)

Additional Images

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  Naval live oak Quercus virginiana

Authority

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_oak (Accessed Oct. 8, 2005)