Southern Live Oaks dominate every place they grow.  Our little third of an acre is framed by 6 massive oak trees.  They are a dominant force in our little ecosystem.  The largest of them is one we call The Elephant Oak.  We measure its circumference to be over 21 feet at my waist level.  The tree is not perfectly round so we measure its widest diameter to be close to 7 feet!  (An average car is 6' in width.) This tree exceeds 60' in height although the species has been known to exceed 80'. In the above photo we have a regulation soccer ball for size comparison.

These giant Live Oaks aren't the biggest trees in America.  I took this photo in the Big Sur region of California.  Here giant Redwoods/Sequoias are big enough to be tunneled through.

A giant oak provides food and shelter for animals.  Squirrels, Chickadees and Blue Jays seem especially fond of acorns.  Chipmunks and other rodents eat them. I'm told humans could eat certain acorns (some species are toxic to humans and other animals) provided they were boiled several times to remove the tannic acid...none for me, thanks.  Indeed, squirrels and Blue Jays are what we call biological dispersal agents for these giant trees.  Acorns are too big to be blown by the wind as lighter seeds are spread.  Animals will store these acorns—sometimes far from the tree.  I believe birds and rodents probably keep pretty good track of their storage but these animals have a short life span and some die before they finish eating all of their buried larder.  Voila—new trees are planted!

While moss won't grow on a rolling stone, it seems quite at home on an oak tree.  And yes, there appears to be much more moss on the north side of these trees.  Probably because of shade, moss does sometimes grow on other sides of a tree but it appears that moss is noticiably heavier on the north side.  The soccer ball above is on the north side of this oak tree.

These mushrooms or fungi are sheltered on the north side of this oak.  I've seen squirrels eating wild mushrooms.  Unless you are an expert, wild mushrooms must never be gathered for food.  There is a rule for identifying edible mushrooms.  It's called the Stockland Edible Mushroom Test and it goes like this:  If you find mushrooms wrapped and labeled in a supermarket, they are likely to be edible and safe.  Avoid eating any others.  I joke but it really is a serious topic.  Every year, people are poisoned when they misidentify mushrooms.

Ferns and vines are also sheltered in our giant oaks.  I've even seen small oaks growing in adult oaks.  Obviously, the shade of a tree also provides conditions that help certain shade loving plants to survive.


A "volunteer" oak grows in the crook of a larger oak.  Apparently, decaying leaf matter provided just the right bedding for an acorn to germinate. 

In an odd interaction between man and nature, the giant oak's roots grow shallow in the sandy soil.  Here the large roots have raised a section of driveway enough that the seed of a broad bladed grass (Called "Monkey Grass" locally)  found everything it needed to sprout, grow and produce flowers and seeds.  The seeds provide food for small animals and the flowers are important to bees and butterflies as they gather pollen.