Wide open landscape. After leaving the fruit and almond orchards of the central valley the landscape slowly transitions toward the foothills, with rolling hills and creek valleys dominated by pasture grasslands with live oak. Quercus agrifolia, the California live oak, or coast live oak, is an evergreen live oak native to the California Floristic Province. Live oaks are so-called because they keep living leaves on the tree all year, adding young leaves and shedding dead leaves simultaneously rather than dropping dead leaves en masse in the autumn like a true deciduous tree.