Quercus laurifolia

Fagaceae

Palm Beach County residents know Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) as the dominant street tree hereabouts and far beyond, and present in many natural areas.   Our second big-growing oak, Laurel Oak, is encountered less often in landscaping, and is mostly restricted to wet habitats.  (Although gorgeous and happy to grow, Laurel Oaks have comparatively short lives, suffer from internal decay, and have medium-low hurricane resistance, all unfortunately limiting the ornamental use of this lovely tree.)

The best places to see Laurel Oaks are in lowland alluvial river floodplains, including Riverbend Park in Jupiter.   The largest individuals I’ve personally noticed in Florida, the trunks 4 feet or more in diameter, are along the Hillsborough River near Tampa. Fact is, the Florida State Champion, almost 6 feet in diameter, lives along a creek in the Hillsborough River watershed.    The largest specimen on Earth is in Virginia, about 8.5 feet in diameter.   Although not competing with those giants, the Laurel Oaks along the Loxahatchee River in Riverbend Park are respectable enough. 

Laurel Oaks differ from live oaks by having hairless leaves, and having the mature acorns sit directly on the branches, not having separate stalks of their own.  Compared with Live Oaks, the trunks of Laurel Oaks are straighter and more upright, and lichens love them including the small twigs.  Individuals can be symmetrical, and can be bushy from the top all the way to the ground.

Many floodplain tree trunks have broad bases with lobes at the attachment points of massive shallow horizontal roots.  Thick radiating roots are unwelcome when Laurel Oaks are cultivated close to pavement. 

In river bottoms and similar places, the growth is strongly seasonal, which shows up in the wood grain, as does that tendency to early decay, making wood useful where irregular patterning is an aesthetic “plus,” such as counter tops.

Living in a periodically flooded habitat poses special problems for the trees, which must withstand the associated stresses of unrooting by flooding, and drowned roots, and at the same time be able to recolonize to replace lost individuals.    They are experts at spawning new seedlings, as put so well by an article from 1916:

The tough leaves have a quirk of interest to climate scientists.  Cellular patterns on the leaf surfaces adjust visibly to wet vs. dry weather.  The patterns remain visible on the waxy coating even years after the leaves have fallen to be preserved in wet, low-oxygen peat under the trees, deposited in layers by annual flooding. Their relative age is determined by their depth of burial.   The same patterns are preserved with precise dates on museum specimens, which can date back into the 1800s or even before.   Such precise “wet-spell/dry-spell” fingerprints allow reconstruction of weather patterns in relation to specific years, and in relation to geography.

Although I have no awareness of relevant reports on Laurel Oak itself, oaks in general are regarded as often strongly allelopathic (able to suppress competing plants).  Some of the individuals in Riverbend have almost clear ground beneath: allelopathy? shade? leaf litter?