22 “MISC. CIRCULAR 31, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
rule but woolly on the underside. While it occurs in the Coast Range 
from Southern Oregon to Lower California, it is commonest and 
best in Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Monterey 
Counties, where the redwood grows best. There it is cut for its 
bark, which is of great value to the leather industry. The wood is 
left on the ground to decay or is hauled off for firewood. Although 
it is the hardest and most beautiful of our oak woods, really suitable 
for furniture, it has not been so used except as an experiment. 
The coast live oak—the oak from which Oakland was named 
and is the glory of the University of California campus at Berkeley, 
is a low, broad tree, usually with a trunk 1 to 2 feet in diameter and 
a height of 50 feet, though occasionally trees 60 to 70 and even 80 
feet in height and 3 feet through are found in favorable locations. 
The largest recorded specimen, over 100 feet high and more than 6 
feet through, is in the Ojai Valley. 
This oak occurs in the Coast Range from Sonoma County to Lower 
California. The leaves are similar to holly leaves and when mature 
curl over, partially hiding the undersurface. The bark on young 
trees is light, but old trees have the dark, heavily ridged bark we all 
know. The acorns are slender, and the edges of their scaly cups 
turn in. 
The evergreen white oak (often called “mesa” and “ Engelmann 
oak”) is found mixed with the coast live oak on the low hills and 
rolling mesas of southern California and in the Palomar Mountain 
region. Its deeply furrowed, grayish-brown bark and dense’ crown 
resemble those of the eastern white oak. The leaves are thick, bluish 
green and almost smooth. 
The highland live oak, when young, is similar to the coast live 
oak; its smooth leaves, however, do not have a tendency to curl, and 
are yellowish beneath. It is a vigorous, round-headed tree, 30 to 75 
feet high, with a trunk 1 to 3 feet in diameter, and leaves either 
smooth-edged or spiny-toothed. One finds it on the trails climbing 
the sides of the Yosemite Valley, where it gives a good excuse for 
stopping for breath while one notes its slender acorns, sometimes 
more than half covered by the dark-brown, scaly cups. At higher 
elevations this tree degenerates into very tough chaparral. It is 
found throughout the State, in the foothills and valleys, usually away 
from the coast. 
The canyon live oak (fig. 16) is a glorious tree, with scaly, whitish 
bark. It is sometimes called the maul oak because it makes such 
superb mauls or mallets for use in driving the frow when making 
split shakes. At an elevation of 2,000 to 3,000 feet in the canyons of 
the Sierra it is abundant and attains a good growth, with a height 
of 60 feet and a girth of 9 to 12 feet; in less favorable places it is 
20 to 30 feet high and 1 to 2 feet through; but in the bottom lands 
of valleys in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties it is a noble tree, 
80 to 95 feet high and from 4 to 6 feet in diameter. Large trees 
have an odd habit of forming buttresses at their bases, which some- 
times grow out from the trunk with sufficient abruptness to form 
seats. The leaves vary greatly, being sometimes entire at the edge, 
sometimes toothed; but like the rest of the evergreen oaks they are 
never incised, as are the valley white, the California black, and other 
deciduous oaks. The acorns are very unusual because of the yellow 
