1 6 Muhlenbergia, Volume 7 



THE COAST LIVE OAK 

 By a. a. Heixer 



■^UERCUS AGRiFOLiA Nee, Anales de Ciencias Naturales 3: 271. 

 ---- -1801. 



This beautiful evergreen oak, characteristic of the coast 

 hills and valleys in the bay region of California, was first col- 

 lected at Monterey in September, 1791, by Thaddeus Haenke, 

 one of the botanists of the Malaspina expedition, planned by 

 Charles III. of Spain, and sent out by his successor, Charles IV. 

 on a voyage of discovery and scientific exploration of the distant 

 possessions of the Spanish kingdom. 



Haenke was not only the first botanist to visit California, 

 but Quercus agrifolia was the first Californian tree described 

 and published by a botanist. But it had been previously men- 

 tioned in what might be termed a "popular" way by several per- 

 sons. The earliest of these was Father Venegaz, in his Natural 

 and Civil History of California 1: 46. 1758. He referred to it 

 as "holm," a word denoting an evergreen tree with prickly foli- 

 age. 



Vancouver, who visited California in 1792, noted on or near 

 the site of San Francisco, "small bushy holly-leaved oaks," and 

 in the valley about the Mission of Santa Clara "the holly-leaved 

 oaks were increased from dwarf shrubs to trees of considerable 

 size." While at Santa Barbara in the fall of 1793 he "procured 

 some stout knees from the holly-leaved oak, for the security of 

 the Discovery's head and bumkins." His journal, containing 

 these extracts, was published in 1798. 



The accompanying illustration was taken in the type re- 

 gion on the Carmel valley slope of the road leading from Mon- 

 terey to Carmel Mission, and shows the characteristic growth of 

 a niature tree grown in the open. The following is taken from 

 Sudworth's Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope: 



"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 



