The 14 Oak Species of the Lake Wales Ridge

13. Quercus virginiana

Not quite native to the Lake Wales Ridge, but still native off-ridge in western Polk County, Live Oak or Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) is the largest of the Florida white oaks. Reaching 80 feet tall and over 100 feet wide, everything about these trees is larger in every way.

Huge Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) in Lakeland, Florida west of the Lake Wales Ridge. This specimen’s trunk measures five feet in diameter when measured at breast height; a circumference of nearly 16 feet.
Live Oak from above as seen from below.

Southern Live Oaks look very much like giant Sand Live Oaks, which are the native equivalent to Live Oaks on the Lake Wales Ridge. Sand Live Oak are simply miniature Live Oak which are adapted to the scrubs and sandhills of Central Florida’s interior.

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25. Leaf blade margins flat to slightly revolute; secondary veins flat to inconspicuously impressed on the upper leaf blade surface; all rays of the stellate hairs closely appressed to the lower leaf blade surface

Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) leaves are mostly flat, but can curl under at the edges a little. Sand Live Oak (Q. geminata) will curl under very heavily at the edges, and are usually half the size of Southern Live Oak leaves. Finally, Southern Live Oak have hairs that lie flat, or are pressed against the underside of its leaves, whereas Sand Live Oak has hairs which radiate away from the underside of their leaves.

Live Oak specimen collected by the Jennings almost 100 years ago, just west of the Ridge in Fort Meade, Polk County, Florida. Note that the leaves do not curl under at the edges.