Botanica Atlanta | Landscape Design, Construction & Maintenance

“Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” a sailor reportedly exclaimed.

Image: Anton Otto Fischer

It was August 19, 1812 and the British HMS Guerriere was trading gunshots and cannon blasts with the USS Constitution. America’s USS Constitution, which would – from the moment of that exclamation forward – be nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” was a warship named by George Washington and put together with copper fittings that were forged by Paul Revere. Much to the concern of the HMS Guerriere at the time, she was also manned by a crew of more than 400, armed with around fifty cannon, and shielded with a twenty-one-inch thick hull that was in fact wood, not iron. This tough hull was constructed with materials from  several different tree species, but perhaps most significant were the shallow-arced and unprecedentedly tough members cut and milled from southern live oak trees in St. Simons, Georgia.

Back on dry land, in the coastal regions of the Southeast, to be specific, southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) is one of the most distinct plant species in the landscape.

Image: Al Benas

The low-sprawling, convoluted, and gnarled branches of the southern live oak give the species an easily identifiable and visually powerful “architecture”. The tree’s form is able to dominate landscapes in a way that few other species can.

A large part of the visual character of live oaks has little to do with the trees themselves. The humid, warm areas of the continent where southern live oaks take on their best form also happens to be a perfect growing climate for Tillandsia usneoides, the organism that we refer to as Spanish Moss. A botanist or ecologist would inform you that Spanish moss is actually not a moss at all but instead a type of suspended plant called an epiphyte that absorbs its nutrients from rain, dust, and air. They also might tell you that the relationship that this draping, ghostly gray-green plant has with the southern live oak is defined as commensalism. This means that the Tillandsia benefits from its relationship with the tree, while the Quercus is neither harmed nor benefited. Judging by the strong association that we humans hold between the two plants, and the way that the dramatic, billowing stems can play tricks on our eyes at twilight, I would certainly say the tree benefits as well, even if only in the eye of the beholder.

Images: Kelly Johnson and Gail Des Jardin

As with most trees of any lasting value, southern live oaks are not fast growers. In fact, many of the specimens that we admire for their ancient character are nearly a century old, if not older. But these are trees that we must plant for our children and grandchildren, not only for ourselves.

It is not easy for me to think of a tree species that has more of a visual weight and aesthetic dominance in a landscape than Quercus virginiana. When I picture the southeastern coast, it is the baroque beauty of southern live oaks that comes to the foreground of my mind. These trees dominate any landscape in which they grow, just as they dominate my picture of the entire region, and surely there is a good reason for that.

Image: Gloria Manna

Author: Sam Valentine, BLA, LEED AP