Angel Oak is a Southern live oak on Johns Island, just outside Charleston, South Carolina, and one of the most famous trees in America. It stands about 65 feet tall, but its real glory is its spread: huge limbs snake out across the ground, the longest reaching about 187 feet, and its canopy shades some 17,000 square feet. About 400,000 people a year come to stand beneath it.

Angel Oak’s sweeping limbs on Johns Island, South Carolina

How old is Angel Oak?

The tree is often described online as 1,500 years old, but that figure has no support. The City of Charleston’s Angel Oak page estimates its age at 300 to 400 years, while other estimates put it at 400 to 500 years. Either way, it has stood here for centuries.

Angel Oak, a Southern live oak near Charleston

Angel Oak is also sometimes called the oldest tree east of the Mississippi. That title belongs to bald cypress trees in the Carolinas, one of which, in North Carolina, is over 1,600 years old. What Angel Oak can claim is size: the city describes it as the largest live oak east of the Mississippi.

Angel Oak by the numbers

  • Species: Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana).
  • Height: about 65 ft (20 m).
  • Trunk circumference: about 25.5 ft (7.8 m).
  • Shaded area: about 17,000 sq ft (1,580 m²).
  • Longest limb: about 187 ft (57 m).
  • Registers: the 210th tree registered with the Live Oak Society; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2026.

Published measurements vary a little from source to source; the figures above are the city’s, apart from the longest limb.

History, the Angel name and local legend

The tree takes its name from the estate of Justus Angel and his wife, Martha Waight Tucker Angel. Local folklore adds another layer: stories tell of the ghosts of formerly enslaved people appearing as angels around the tree.

Angel Oak was badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and has since recovered. The City of Charleston has owned the tree and the park around it since 1991.

In 2012 a plan for a 500-unit apartment complex about 160 yards from the tree was challenged in court by Save the Angel Oak and the Coastal Conservation League, citing concerns about groundwater and nutrients. By December 2013 the Lowcountry Land Trust had preserved 17 acres next to the oak from development. In 2018 one of its acorns was germinated and planted in a pot beneath the old branches, a seedling nicknamed “Baby Angel”.

Angel Oak in its park on Johns Island

Visiting Angel Oak Park

  • Address: 3688 Angel Oak Road, Johns Island, Charleston, SC. The park is outside downtown Charleston, so plan on a drive.
  • Opening: open to the public seven days a week, closed on holidays.
  • Admission: free; donations help to preserve the tree.
  • Rules: no blankets, food, drinks, props or tripods on or around the tree. Leashed pets are allowed in designated areas, including the picnic area.
  • Weddings and photo shoots: weddings, engagement shoots and other special events need a permit from the city’s Recreation Department.
  • Gift shop: information and Lowcountry souvenirs.

Walk all the way around the tree before taking pictures: from each side the limbs make a different shape, and a wide view is the only way to understand how far they reach.

For more green escapes in the US, see our Central Park guide, and for trees shaped by people over generations, Meghalaya’s root bridges.