Coast live oak
Quercus agrifolia
The signature evergreen oak of the California coast and foothills — a broad-canopied tree with dense, dark, holly-like leaves whose spiny-toothed margins curl under, and a short, often massive trunk. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents it growing 20-50 feet high and wide, with old specimens reaching 100 feet and living for centuries. A keystone wildlife tree: its acorns and dense canopy feed and shelter Oak Titmouse, scrub and Steller's jays, chestnut-backed chickadee, and roughly 30 other bird species, and it is a larval host for three duskywing and sister butterflies.
Native: CA
Climate fit: narrow (31/100)
Focal point
Structure
Light
Full sun / Part shade
Water
Low water
Mature size
240-720" tall · 360" apart
Hardy in zones
8b-10b
frosty to mild winters
AHS heat range
4-11
Plant range authored in AHS heat-zone terms.
Native in Illinois
No
A documented larval host for the Polyphemus moth — caterpillars feed on its foliage before becoming the next generation.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Won't grow here
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Won't grow here
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✕
Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 36 ecoregions — 33 climate-resilient through 2070 · 3 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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Arizona Mountains forests
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Atlantic coastal pine barrens
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California coastal sage and chaparral
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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands
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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests
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Central-Southern Cascades Forests
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Chihuahuan desert
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Chilean Matorral
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Plant this, not that
Better fit for this place
For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.
Quercus garryana
Oregon white oak
The only native oak of British Columbia and Washington and the principal oak of Oregon — a slow-growing, deeply tap-rooted deciduous tree with deeply lobed, rounded-lobe glossy leaves and a broad, rugged, rounded crown. It is the keystone of the Pacific Northwest oak savanna, providing acorns and cover for deer, small mammals, and birds. Notably drought-adapted: it wants dry summer soil and resents irrigation.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Acer circinatum
Vine maple
A Pacific Northwest native small maple of understory + woodland-edge habitats producing rounded palmate leaves with brilliant red-orange fall color + a delicate multi-stemmed shrubby-to-small-tree habit. Native to the Cascade + Coast Range forests; thrives in cool moist Pacific Northwest conditions where eastern maples struggle. Among the most graceful native ornamental small trees for shaded gardens.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea
Blue elderberry
A large multi-stemmed native shrub-to-small-tree of western North America, named for the dusty powder-blue drupes that ripen in late summer over a waxy bloom. Flat-topped creamy-white flower cymes up to 10 inches across rise above pinnately compound serrated foliage in early summer, drawing birds and butterflies. The cooked fruit is edible and prized for jelly, pie, and wine, but the plant earns a "high maintenance" note for suckering, wind/snow breakage, and a roster of fungal and insect pests.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Pinus ponderosa
Ponderosa pine
The dominant pine of the western United States — a large, long-lived conifer that grows in a conical form to 60-125 feet in cultivation and far taller in the wild. Mature trunks wear distinctive bright yellowish-brown to reddish-orange bark furrowed into broad scaly plates, often smelling of vanilla or butterscotch on warm days. Dark yellow-green needles up to 10 inches long crowd the branch ends in bundles of three, and the species is highly drought- and deer-tolerant once established.
Better fit now and in 2050
Now: well-suited
2050: well-suited
Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Quercus garryana
Oregon white oak
The only native oak of British Columbia and Washington and the principal oak of Oregon — a slow-growing, deeply tap-rooted deciduous tree with deeply lobed, rounded-lobe glossy leaves and a broad, rugged, rounded crown. It is the keystone of the Pacific Northwest oak savanna, providing acorns and cover for deer, small mammals, and birds. Notably drought-adapted: it wants dry summer soil and resents irrigation.
Cornus nuttallii
Pacific dogwood
The western counterpart of eastern flowering dogwood — a small deciduous tree of the Pacific coast with horizontal, tiered branching and a rounded-to-conical crown. Its showy spring "flowers" are actually a tight central cluster of tiny purple-green true flowers ringed by six large white petal-like bracts (eastern flowering dogwood has four). Elliptic dark green leaves color yellow to orange to red in fall, and the 1/3-inch fruits ripen to showy bright red or orange that feed songbirds, squirrels, and deer.
Acer circinatum
Vine maple
A Pacific Northwest native small maple of understory + woodland-edge habitats producing rounded palmate leaves with brilliant red-orange fall color + a delicate multi-stemmed shrubby-to-small-tree habit. Native to the Cascade + Coast Range forests; thrives in cool moist Pacific Northwest conditions where eastern maples struggle. Among the most graceful native ornamental small trees for shaded gardens.
Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea
Blue elderberry
A large multi-stemmed native shrub-to-small-tree of western North America, named for the dusty powder-blue drupes that ripen in late summer over a waxy bloom. Flat-topped creamy-white flower cymes up to 10 inches across rise above pinnately compound serrated foliage in early summer, drawing birds and butterflies. The cooked fruit is edible and prized for jelly, pie, and wine, but the plant earns a "high maintenance" note for suckering, wind/snow breakage, and a roster of fungal and insect pests.
Ceanothus thyrsiflorus
Blueblossom
The hardiest and largest of the California lilacs — a fast-growing broadleaf-evergreen shrub of the Pacific coast that smothers itself in dense thyrse clusters of pale-to-deep blue flowers in spring. Glossy three-veined, finely toothed dark-green leaves and a billowing shrub habit make it a signature blue mass on West Coast slopes. Drought tolerant once established, it asks for little summer water and resents overwatering; deer and elk browse the foliage and the bloom is a documented draw for native bees.
Arctostaphylos manzanita
Common manzanita
An evergreen California chaparral shrub famous for its smooth, sinuous, red-orange bark and crooked branches — "manzanita" means "little apple" for the small reddish berries. Bright green, broadly ovate leaves stand year-round above the polished trunks, and nodding white-to-pink urn-shaped flowers open from February into April. A dry-slope native of the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills that asks for almost no summer water once established.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia). Retrieved 2026, June 24, from https://plotwright.com/plants/quercus-agrifolia
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database
Botanical research database
Backs 17 fields
Identity
Summary
Plant type
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