# Dwarf Live Oak (Quercus minima) > A knee-high live oak that spreads from underground stems into evergreen patches and can bear acorns just three years from seed. Also called minimal oak, Quercus virginiana var. minima. Category: Rare & Uncommon Oaks. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-live-oak/ ![Dwarf live oak (Quercus minima) low stems of narrow and toothed leaves among pineland grasses](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/dwarf-live-oak-h1610-800.jpg) *Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AQuercusMinima1.jpg)* ## Facts - Type: Shrub - Mature height: 1 to 3 ft - USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 10 - Grows wild in: Sandy barrens and the forest understory - Native range: 7 states, north to North Carolina, south to Florida and west to Louisiana (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina) - Sun: Full, Part - Soil moisture: Dry, Average - Growth rate: Slow - Traits: Evergreen, Bears young, Drought tolerant, Wildlife value, Rare - Sold as: Saplings, Acorns Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them. ## Availability Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed. ## Notes Dwarf live oak is a close cousin of the southern live oak, once named a variety of it, that never grows past shrub size. It grows on deep sand in pine flatwoods, sandhills and open scrub of the southeastern Coastal Plain, often beneath pines. North Carolina lists it as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled there and in Mississippi. It is an excellent groundcover that the nursery trade has overlooked. Use it as a woody groundcover on dry, sunny sand, or beneath longleaf pines in a restoration planting. ## Size, growth and what to expect Dwarf live oak grows slowly, and our growth estimator uses its slow class. Most stems stand under 3 feet, straight and often unbranched, and rarely reach 6 feet. It flowers in early spring before the new leaves, from March to May, and it bears acorns every fall. A plant can fruit three years from seed, on a stem only 8 to 12 inches tall. The nut is five eighths of an inch to an inch long, up to half in a goblet-shaped cup. Its leaves come in two shapes, broad and coarsely toothed low on a shoot and narrow and smooth-edged near its tip. They stay green through winter until the new leaves push them off. Its acorns feed wildlife, and its leaves feed hairstreak caterpillars. ## How to grow Dwarf Live Oak Dwarf live oak wants full sun or light shade and a sandy, well-drained soil. Once rooted it needs no watering, but salt wind burns its leaves. In the wild it grows only where fire keeps taller plants back, so do not let shrubs shade it out. Set plants 3 feet apart for a groundcover, and keep each one 3 feet from a wall. It may grow within 15 feet of overhead wires. Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them from late fall to early spring, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the sand back in, and keep the mulch thin. Live oak acorns sprout soon after they fall. Sow them on arrival, an inch deep, under hardware cloth. Water every week or two through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer and rabbits browse young oaks, so cage the first plants for two years. The patch widens on its own from underground stems, so give it room to spread. The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. Dwarf live oak belongs to the white oak group, so its acorns ripen in a single season. Prune only in the dormant season, if at all. Where it meets Chapman oak along the east side of Florida, the two form hybrid swarms. ## Sources - [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Quercus minima](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501062) - [USDA Forest Service, Field Guide to Native Oak Species of Eastern North America, FHTET-03-01, Stein, Binion and Acciavatti 2003](https://rngr.net/publications/field-guide-to-native-oak-species-of-eastern-north-america) - [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Quercus minima](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUMI2) - [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Quercus minima](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/quercus-minima/) - [The Institute for Regional Conservation, Natives for Your Neighborhood: Quercus minima](https://www.regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Quermini) - [NatureServe Explorer: Quercus minima](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.145667/Quercus_minima) - [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: 2024 Rare Plant List, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/833/open) - [Alabama Plant Atlas: Quercus minima](http://floraofalabama.org/Plant.aspx?id=2170) - [Atlas of Florida Plants, University of South Florida Institute for Systematic Botany: Quercus minima](https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant/species/2589) - [Oaks of the World, Jean-Louis Hélardot: Quercus minima](http://oaks.of.the.world.free.fr/quercus_minima.htm) - [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Quercus chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Quercus.pdf) - [USDA PLANTS: Quercus minima (Sarg.) Small, QUMI2](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/QUMI2) ## Read before planting - [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md) - [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md) - [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md) - [Red oaks and white oaks, and where each belongs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/red-oaks-and-white-oaks/index.html.md) - [When oaks leaf out, and why two of them never agree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/when-oaks-leaf-out/index.html.md) - [Marcescence: why young beeches and oaks keep their dead leaves all winter](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/marcescence/index.html.md) ## Related - [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Dwarf Live Oak, add ?species=dwarf-live-oak with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=dwarf-live-oak&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average. - [Companion species for Dwarf Live Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=dwarf-live-oak): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard. - [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=dwarf-live-oak - [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Dwarf Live Oak is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=dwarf-live-oak - [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Dwarf Live Oak needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=dwarf-live-oak:2 - [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Dwarf Live Oak flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.