''Quercus geminata'', commonly called sand live oak, is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

oak

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

native to the coastal regions of the subtropical southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, along the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Coast from southern Florida northward to southeastern Virginia and along the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Missis ...

westward to southern Mississippi,
"FloriData — Quercus geminata", Retrieved 2011-07-06 on seacoast Dune, dunes and on white sands in evergreen oak scrubs. A small- to medium-sized tree, the sand live oak is scrubby and forms thickets. The bark is dark, thick, furrowed, and roughly ridged. The leaves are thick, leathery, and coarsely veined, with extremely revolute margins, giving them the appearance of inverted shallow bowls; their tops dark green, their bottoms dull gray and very tightly tomentose, and their petioles densely pubescent, they are simple and typically flat with bony-opaque margins, having a length of and a width of . The male flowers are green hanging

catkin A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind- pollinated ( anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arra ...

s. The acorns are small, 1–2.5 cm, oblong-ellipsoid or ovoid, and are commonly born in pairs on

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

s of varying lengths. In coastal

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

's evergreen oak

scrub Scrub(s) may refer to: * Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland * Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff * ''Scrubs'' (TV series), an American television program * Scrubs (occupation), also called "scrub tech," "scrub nurse," ...

, the sand live oak is a ubiquitous and abundant species; the threatened Florida scrub-jay is found only in

Florida scrub Florida sand pine scrub is an endangered subtropical forest ecoregion found throughout Florida in the United States. It is found on coastal and inland sand ridges and is characterized by an evergreen xeromorphic plant community dominated by shrub ...

Live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...

s, having characteristics of the sand live oak and the southern live oak (''Q. virginiana''), grow further inland. It is believed that these specimens are hybrids of ''Q. geminata'' and ''Q. virginiana''. While hybridization occurs between ''Q. geminata'' and ''Q. virginiana,'' the two species are genetically and morphologically distinct. The Cuban oak, ''Q. sagraeana'', has been purported to be a hybrid between the sand live oak and '' Q. oleoides'', but recent evidence suggests that the Cuban oak is a separate species without hybrid origin.

References

External links

"Carolina Nature – Will Cook's Web Site"
– close-up photographs {{Taxonbar, from=Q4112997 geminata Trees of the Southeastern United States Plants described in 1897