Sand Live Oak

Size, growth and what to expect

Sand live oak grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Expect a tree of 20 to 50 feet with a broad, spreading crown, though it stays a shrubby thicket where fires are frequent. Old trees can reach 95 feet, and the two largest known stand in Gainesville, Florida.

Small catkins open from March to May, later than those of live oak. The acorns ripen the same year, from August to October, in ones, twos and threes on stalks up to 4 inches long. Each is 5/8 to 1 inch long and dark brown, a third sunk in a scaly gray cup. Florida scrub-jays, wild turkeys, woodpeckers, squirrels and deer eat them, and the leaves feed hairstreak and duskywing caterpillars.

It grows wild on the Coastal Plain from North Carolina south through most of peninsular Florida and west along the Gulf to Louisiana. Look for it on deep sand in scrub, sandhills, coastal dunes, flatwoods and coastal hammocks, often under pines. NatureServe ranks it vulnerable in North Carolina, at the north end of its range.

How to grow Sand Live Oak

Sand live oak wants full sun or light shade and deep, sharply drained sand, acid or neutral. Once rooted it stands long droughts and strong wind. It takes salty wind, but not direct salt spray or flooding with salt or brackish water. Its leaves and acorns are rich in tannin and can stain concrete, so keep it back from patios and drives. Plant it 25 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 20 feet apart.

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 root flare at the soil line, put the sand back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sand live oak acorns sprout soon after they fall and need no winter chill, as live oak acorns do. 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 browse young oaks, so guard each sapling with a tube or cage for its first two years. Some plants stay shrubby and sucker into thickets, so pull the suckers if you want a single trunk.

The flowers are wind pollinated, and an acorn crop wants another oak nearby. Sand live oak belongs to the white oak group, so its acorns ripen in one season. It flowers later in spring than live oak, so the two seldom cross even where they grow together. Acorns come every year.