Most oak trees are deciduous, which means that they lose their leaves every fall. But the live oak keeps its leaves year-round—it's an evergreen. This type of oak is relatively small in size and can often be low-growing like a bush. The live oak does not require much water and can grow in poor soils. The acorns produced are a staple food source for the urban wildlife of Chamizal National Memorial—birds and squirrels. Past hunter and gatherer societies ground the acorns into flour. The leaves were used as bedding, or were burned to ashes and used as a cleaning agent similar to lye. The pulverized bark was dusted on open sores to aid healing and would often be used to treat newborns with bleeding navels. The bark was also boiled and used as a dye for buckskins. Even the branches were woven into work baskets as handles or used as a structural support.
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