I have many wonderful memories of the Southern Live Oak. Two grew in my front yard in Florida. They were their own ecosystem with lizards crawling among the roots swirling at the bottom, birds pecking and singing above, moss, lichen and ferns growing in the branches.
Southern Live Oak and Spanish Moss
Just north of the St. Mary’s River which is the boundary between Florida and Georgia lies the barrier island of Cumberland Island National Seashore. The center of the island is filled with the Southern Live Oak, the state tree of Georgia. The salt spray and winds are natural pruning agents that keep these trees spreading out relatively close to the ground.
Palmetto and Live Oak
A hardwood hammock near where I grew up was named Deer Head Hammock for the large Live Oak that greeted you as you walked that looked like the animal. Another nearby hammock was named after a mentor of mine—Erna Nixon. The Live Oak can live for centuries. Mrs. Nixon named the two largest trees John and Tom, for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson who would’ve been alive when those trees started (and who both died 198 years ago on July 4th on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.)
But on a barrier island with sand dunes near the shore, a tree may not live as long if it gets covered in drifting sand. When the Spanish and British started colonizing the area, they prized the Live Oak to harvest to repair or build new sailing vessels.
The state tree of Florida is the Sabal Palm. You can see one in the image above. Here near the FL-GA line it is appropriate to find a pair snuggling.
I hope you get a chance to get lost for a while in the embrace of a Southern Live Oak.
