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.

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