Coast_live_oak Coast_live_oak

Coast live oak - Definition and Overview

Related Words: Avalanche, Bank, Beach, Beam, Berm, Board, Boat, Border, Brim, Broadside, Canoe, Cheek, Chop, Circumnavigate, Coastline, Cross, Cruise, Delay
Coast Live Oak
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Fagales
Family:Fagaceae
Genus:Quercus
Species:agrifolia
Binomial name
Quercus agrifolia


The Coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, also called the California live oak, is an evergeen oak, highly variable and often shrubby, found in the coastal regions of southwestern North America from Mendocino County, California south to northern Baja California in Mexico. The dark-green leaves are usually small, thick and spiny-toothed.

The Coast live oak is classified in the red oak section (Quercus sect. Lobatae). Several hybrids between Coast live oak and other red oak species have been documented. Hybrids with Interior live oak (Q. wislizenii) are known in many areas in northern California. Coast live oak also hybridizes with Nuttall's scrub oak (Q. dumosa) and Shreve oak (Q. parvula var. shrevii). All these oak species show evidence of introgression with one another.

The name Quercus agrifolia literally means "field-leaved oak", and is generally thought to be an error by the describing botanist for "aquifolia", "holly-leaved".

Example Usage of Coast

NewsInAlabama: Flash: "Gulf Coast states press for tanker deal" http://tinyurl.com/ybasbla
B19_TRV: @simonmayo One Day like this by Elbow. currently Honeymooning, Benguerra Isaland off Coast of Mozambique
MartinMMC: @abramsandbettes good morning guys! Chilly morning here on the east Coast. Watched the temp drop nearly 9 degrees in 5min with a front
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