Quercus virginiana Mill.

LIVE OAK

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Live oaks, especially from the Carolinas and Georgia, were critical materials for many ships in the 1700s and 1800s. The restoration of the USS Constitution in 1928-1931 used live oak from Pensacola that had been underwater for ca. 70 years (Thirgood 1971; Wood 1981; Fleetwood 1995; Amer 1998). Of the acorn, Bartram (1792: 83) wrote that it is "sweet and agreeable to the taste when roasted, and is food for almost all animals. The Indians obtain from it a sweet oil". Compared to red oaks, live oak acorns are relatively low in tannins (Ofcarcik & Burns 1971) and lipids (Short 1976), characteristic of the white oak group.

Native FACU (NWPL) U (WAP)

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