Two species of native oak trees are common on the New College campus - live oak (Quercus virginiana) and laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia). Instead of dropping all their leaves in the fall like northern oaks, live oaks and laurel oaks drop all their leaves in the early spring, just as their flowers emerge and just before new leaves appear. This process is beginning now in the last weeks of February and will continue over the next couple of months.
Each tree seems to be on its own time table and have its own shade of green-brown-rust colored catkins. Oak catkins are long thin pendants with multiple inconspicuous male flowers. The male flowers produce pollen which is distributed by the wind. The fine yellow dust on our cars this time of year could be either oak or pine pollen. Following the catkins, bright green new leaves appear. Walking around campus and driving around town during the spring, its easy to see oak trees at all different stages of transition: some still sporting last year's dark green leaves; some covered in rust and golden colored catkins after the old leaves have dropped; and many bursting with the bright green of new leaves.
For more information on laurel oak, including a slide show: http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=3901
For more informatin on live oak, including a slide show http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=3904
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I am interested in identifying the species of oaks in the neighborhood of New College with an eye to selecting a good shade tree. But both the Live and Laurel oaks you mention as common around here have shortcomings. Laurel oaks are said to be short-lived and constantly dropping twigs and limbs[1]. On the other hand, many of the Live oaks around here have very open crowns and foliage so sparse they barely shade the ground. Still, there seem to be many attractive individuals in the neighborhood, but I can't tell what species they are.
ReplyDeleteNearly all the oak trees have elliptical leaves, which (along with size) seems to rule out everything besides Laurel or Live oaks in central Florida. My limited tree identification skills leave me using leaf shape and color (Live oaks are wider, concave, dark green and shiny, while Laurel oaks are quite narrow, flat and lighter green) and crown shape (Live oaks are open crowns with serpentine branches, while Laurel oaks have dense compact crowns).
Confusingly, however, I have seen all combinations of these characteristics. I wonder if these are reliable diagnostics or if some of these individuals are hybrids or perhaps are some other species altogether. Alternatively, maybe I need a different approach to identification, or these species just have a broad (overlapping) sets of characteristics. To be specific, I am curious about these two trees: this one on Eastchester just south of Mecca[2] and this one on Bay Shore at Myrtle in the Mennonite Church parking lot[3].
Thanks,
Ted Anderson
[1] http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WO018
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/27498524@N00/tags/oakeastchester2/
[3] http://www.flickr.com/photos/27498524@N00/tags/oakchurch1/