Coast live oak
Quercus agrifolia
An evergreen oak with a broad, branching crown. A defining presence in California’s coastal woodlands, it supports an intricate community of birds, mammals, and other plants.
- Family
- Fagaceae
- Regional status
- Native
- Habitat
- Oak woodland & coastal foothills
- Safety
- Not evaluated
A closer look.
Coast live oak occurs in Mediterranean climates with wet winters and dry summers. Acorns support species including acorn woodpeckers and scrub jays. Older trees provide nesting cavities and shade in a woodland shaped by fire, water, and long histories of human care.
USDA Forest Service · Peter D. Steinberg, 2002 ↗
Compared with linked references on October 22, 2026. This is source verification, not independent expert review or an identification guarantee. Seasonal tags are approximate. Specimen maps show a selected historical subset.
Through the seasons
Evergreen foliage can be observed year round. Autumn browsing emphasizes acorns and the wildlife they support; timing varies.
Knowledge has a context.
Historical accounts are presented as attributed records, not endorsed practices, medical advice, or permission to harvest.
The Forest Service review documents acorns as an important food resource for California Native peoples. The summary is secondary literature and does not represent authorization from a community. A fuller account needs specific community attribution and review; processing instructions are not included.
A record of where it was found.
Coastal and adjacent ranges from Mendocino County south into Baja California, with some inland and island populations.
Oak woodland & coastal foothills
Northern California · Central California · Southern California
Historical collections are evidence of recorded locations, not a continuous range, current presence, abundance, native status, or confirmed identification. Unmapped places are not evidence of absence.
What this map includes
From the first 300 results returned by the stored GBIF query, 14 specimens met the coordinate and reuse filters; 286 were excluded. The query matched 2,089 records at retrieval. This subset is not random or exhaustive.
Records are labeled California, have coordinates, and lack GBIF geospatial-issue flags. We exclude known coordinate uncertainty above 25 km and use only CC0 or CC BY 4.0 records. 13 included records do not report coordinate uncertainty. A 0.25° cell is about 28 km north to south; it does not show an exact collecting site.
Matched taxon: Quercus agrifolia ↗.
Inspect the stored query ↗ · Download the attributed snapshot ↓
USDA Forest Service · Peter D. Steinberg, 2002 ↗
Data publishers & selected records
Dataset citations apply to the contributing specimens. The snapshot retains record IDs, original ownership, and reuse licenses; coordinates are generalized to a quarter-degree grid.
- Phanerogamic Botanical Collections (S) ↗
Lundberg J (2026). Phanerogamic Botanical Collections (S). Swedish Museum of Natural History. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/yo3mmu accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-26.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode · accessed October 26, 2026
- MACF - MacFadden Herbarium, California State University Fullerton ↗
California State University, Fullerton (2026). MACF - MacFadden Herbarium, California State University Fullerton. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/1uvzxh accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-26.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode · accessed October 26, 2026
- UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium ↗
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (2026). UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/qpxmw0 accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-26.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode · accessed October 26, 2026
- Tropicos MO Specimen Data ↗
Teisher J, Stimmel H (2026). Tropicos MO Specimen Data. Missouri Botanical Garden. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/hja69f accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-26.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode · accessed October 26, 2026
- Tropicos Specimens Non-MO ↗
Teisher J, Stimmel H (2026). Tropicos Specimens Non-MO. Version 1.122. Missouri Botanical Garden. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/rxbp4w accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-26.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode · accessed October 26, 2026
View 14 included specimen records
- GBIF 5909456474 ↗ · 2025Tropicos Specimens Non-MO · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 5909462528 ↗ · 2025Tropicos MO Specimen Data · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 5053439392 ↗ · 2024UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · Katja Seltmann; Helen Payne, Nathalie Bonnet, Jorge De la Cruz · License
- GBIF 4154098345 ↗ · 2023UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · Ellen Dean · License
- GBIF 4948319301 ↗ · 2023MACF - MacFadden Herbarium, California State University Fullerton · Mellifera R. Letterman · License
- GBIF 4418785331 ↗ · 2022UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · Claire Wilhelm-Safian · License
- GBIF 3946824687 ↗ · 2022Tropicos Specimens Non-MO · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 4031437302 ↗ · 2022Tropicos MO Specimen Data · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 4418785515 ↗ · 2022UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · Gregory A. Wahlert · License
- GBIF 2464727557 ↗ · 2019Tropicos Specimens Non-MO · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 3010313342 ↗ · 2019UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · Gregory A. Wahlert · License
- GBIF 3799494880 ↗ · 2019UCSB - University of California Santa Barbara Herbarium · David Keil; R. Kenny, J. Yost, M. Ritter, and other Phytojog participants · License
- GBIF 4031851887 ↗ · 2019Tropicos MO Specimen Data · Gregory A. Wahlert · Missouri Botanical Garden · License
- GBIF 5034655528 ↗ · 2017Phanerogamic Botanical Collections (S) · Kent Kainulainen · License
Darker = more included records, not abundance
Boundary: US Census Bureau TIGERweb ↗ · locations generalized to 0.25° cells
Trace the record.
References are attached to specific parts of this record. A citation is a route to evidence; it is not a claim that every field has completed review.
- 01Quercus agrifolia — Fire Effects Information System ↗
USDA Forest Service · Peter D. Steinberg, 2002
Supports: Description, range, ecology, and historical uses.
- 02GBIF occurrence records & citation guidance ↗
GBIF Secretariat and contributing data publishers
Supports: Specimen occurrence snapshot. Each contributing dataset, DOI where available, record identifier, and license is retained in the downloadable map data.
- 03TIGERweb — States and Counties ↗
US Census Bureau
Supports: Generalized California state outline only; does not imply a species distribution.