As chairman of the Live Oak Society which incorporates 14 states in the United States, I can truly say that there is not a more beautiful, stalwart or majestic tree than the Live Oak.
It does not grow straight and tall as most oaks but is rounded in shape and spreads its branches and plants its roots wide into the earth. It can live to be over a thousand years old. Live oaks grow in 14 states in the United States. There is a Live Oak Society, founded in 1934, that registers live oaks and preserves, protects and promotes the Live Oak. It can be found at www.lgcfinc.org. In September 2016 there are some 8,230 members in 14 states.
The live oak is a stalwart tree. Because of its strength, its size and its shape it can withstand hurricane winds more than any other tree. People have climbed into its limbs during hurricanes to survive. During Hurricane Katrina three people clung to a live oak in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for almost four hours as the raging waters and 125 mph winds ripped their clothes off of them. If it were not for the live oaks in New Orleans following Katrina the City would have been naked indeed.

A POEM ABOUT THE LIVE OAK
I saw in Louisiana a live oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder'd how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone
there without its friend near, for I knew I could not.
-Walt Whitman

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