Quercus agrifolia Nee. Californian Live Oak, Encina
An evergreen, native to California, otherwise only found in oak collections. Height to 25m (50ft) although it is often shrub by with stems prostrate or only a few feet high. Flowers open in May with the appearance of the young leaves. The sessile or nearly sessile acorns are a long conical shape 3.7cm (1½in) long, often deeply enclosed in the cup. They ripen in one year and fall in October. Leaves are 2.5-5cm (l-2in) long, dark and shiny above and have tufts of down in the vein axils below. Z8.