At the bottom of the Paca Garden is a tree that most people do not expect to see in Annapolis.
The Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), native to the Coastal Plain from southern Virginia to Eastern Texas, is the signature tree of the Deep South. An old adage says that live oaks take a hundred years to grow, a hundred years to live, and a hundred years to die, although in a natural setting, they can live much longer. Because the tree appears to retain its leaves all year, it is called “live” oak. But, emerging leaves in the spring cause last year’s leaves to drop. Live oaks’ acorns are tiny and their simple, alternate leaves are small and leathery with smooth margins, quite unlike the “oak leaf” shape of the northern oaks. It is in the white oak family, although its leaves do not have the rounded lobes usually associated with white oaks.
Because of the wood’s density and strength and the curvilinear shape of the branches, the frames and hull planking of 18th century British and early U.S. Navy warships were mostly made of live oak (from coastal Georgia). One ship could consume 700 trees. The United States’ first publicly-owned timber lands were live oak forests purchased for Navy shipbuilding.
The USS Constitution, built in 1797, now permanently residing in Boston Harbor as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, is made of live oak. The ship got its nickname, “Old Ironsides” from its live oak hull, which supposedly caused cannonballs to bounce off. A 1950’s restoration substituted red oak in the hopes that it would prove as resilient as live oak, but most rotted away by 1970. The Navy is notified whenever a coastal Georgia live oak falls because of age or storm, and the wood is sent to Boston and stored for use when repairs are needed to the ship.
Surprisingly, this massive, sturdy tree grows in nutrient-poor sandy soils in areas susceptible to hurricanes, tropical storms, and periodic saltwater inundation. There are several reasons for this:
Long, hot summers and high humidity cause plant nutrients to decay rapidly and thus replenish the soils.
Shallow, wide-spreading root systems quickly take up nutrients from rain water.
The fungus mycorrhiza, which grows on the root tips, greatly increases the roots’ surface area for absorption of nutrients and water.
Low profiles and wide-spread root systems help support them during high winds. Live oaks sheltered from ocean winds grow taller.
The live oak is home to several epiphytes: Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), resurrection fern (Polypodium polypodioides), ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata), and lichens. Spanish moss is not a parasite; in small amounts it does not harm the tree. But it quickly covers a sick or compromised tree, weighing down the branches and cutting off sunlight, and hastening the tree’s death. Resurrection fern gets its name from its ability to spring from a seemingly dead state to a lush, green one after a rain. But except for lichens, these epiphytes are not usually found in our area, and are not growing on the Paca live oak. I have seen ball moss once at Greenbury Point.
The Paca Garden live oak is an anomaly. The usual range is horticultural zones 8-10 (we're zone 7), but this tree’s location, near a spring and protected from extreme cold and high winds, is the reason it thrives. Although it doesn’t look as healthy or robust as one growing several hundred miles south of here would be, it is alive and growing! There is one other live oak in our area, in the nearby Tawes Garden; these may well be the two most northernmost live oaks in the country.
Dolores Dyson Engle William Paca House and Garden Docent
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