A close relative of the Coast Live Oak, the Valley Oak is truly a spectacular tree. Valley Oaks can reach eighty to one hundred feet and have a canopy approaching the same. Valley Oak trees are deciduous and more open canopied than their cousins. A single- trunk tree, the trunk can often exceed sixty inches in diameter. Specimens one hundred years old are still in their infancy as the trees can live four to five hundred years.

Valley Oak trees are loners and referred to as a solitary species although their often are several trees growing in the same general area. Unlike the Coast Live Oak, they almost never grow close enough to intermingle canopy with their brethren. These trees are amazingly drought tolerant and are often, as their name implies, in the valleys and flat areas of the City. The number of Valley Oak trees has been severely diminished and there are not large numbers of these trees remaining in the City and for the most part are found in the San Fernando Valley.

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