FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 303 



RANGE. 



Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz (south of Santa Barbara), Santa Oatalina. and San Clemente 

 Islands, south of Cape Vincent, off coast of California ; Guadalupe Islands, off coast of 

 Lower California. 



OCCURRENCE. 



In narrow canyon bottoms and on exposed slopes, in rocky or gravelly soils. Climatic, 

 silvical, and other requirements undetermined. 



California Live Oak. 

 Quercus agrifolia N6e. 



DISTIXGUISHIN G CHARACTERISTICS. 



California live oak is one of the commonest, best known of southern Cali- 

 fornia oaks, as well as one of the first to attract the attention of early explorers, 

 who called it " holly-leaved oak." from the resemblance of its leaves to the large 

 American or European evergreen holly. 



It has a short, clear trunk and a narrow or very broad, dome-shaped, dense 

 crown, according to whether it is crowded or in the open. It usually grows in 

 the open. Occasionally it is only a low. shrubby tree. It is ordinarily from 

 25 to 50 feet in height and from 1 to 2 feet in diameter. Very old trees in the 

 open are from 60 to 75 feet high and from 3 to 3* feet through. Very long, 

 thick, crooked limbs are given off from the short, clear trunk (which is often 

 only from 4 to 8 feet long), forming with numerous fine twigs a dense, exceed- 

 ingly broad crown, sometimes reaching the ground ; trees in crowded stands have 

 rather slender branches. Small trees and the large limbs of big trees have 

 smooth, light grayish-brown bark, with frequent ashy-white areas, while large 

 trees have very thick, hard, blackish or very dark brown, roughly furrowed 

 bark, with wide ridges. Season's twigs, dull gray to reddish brown, with 

 pale Chestnut-colored buds, are somewhat downy, with very short, whitish hairs.. 



Mature leaves (figs. 138 to 140) are more or less conspicuously curled on 

 their prickly-toothed or entire edges and are usually dark (but often light) 

 shiny green on their convex upper sides — sometimes coated with light-colored 

 minute, star-shaped hairs, while beneath they are paler green, smooth, some- 

 what shiny, and with brownish hairs in the angles of the veins, or. again, the 

 entire under surface is downy with minute, dense hairs. The leaves are thinnish. 

 but peculiarly stiff and brittle. The foliage appears to be evergreen, but 

 remains on the trees only until the succeeding spring, usually beginning to fall 

 before or a short time after the new leaves are formed. Flowers appear mainly 

 in early spring, the acorns (tig. 140) maturing in the autumn of that season; 

 occasional trees produce flowers in the fall and small immature acorns which 

 drop from the trees by spring. The cups of acorns are peculiar in having their 

 scaly edges turned in. Wood, brittle, hard, heavy, exceedingly fine-grained, 

 reddish brown; sapwood very thick and darker than heart. It has economic 

 value only for fuel, since the tree has a very poor timber form and the wood 

 Checks and warps badly in seasoning. Bark of this species is extensively used 

 to adulterate the similar but much more valuable tanbark obtained from the 

 California tanbark oak. 



Longevity. — Few records of the age attained are available. It is judged 

 to be exceedingly long-lived. Trees from 12 to 25 inches through are from ?6 to 

 about 05 years old. 



