Motte (live oak)

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This article is about the Texan term for "grove". For other uses of the word Mott or Motte, see Mott (disambiguation page).

Mott or motte is a term used in Texas for a copse or small grove of trees, particularly of live oaks where a tight group shares a root system. During a 2003 walking tour [1] of Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush defined it for the press:

THE PRESIDENT: Now, these are all live oaks in here, and when live oaks like this they're called "motts".

Q: Motts? M-o-t?

THE PRESIDENT: M-o-t-t. A mott is where a group of trees grow quite tight together.

In this particular instance, the species involved was the Texas live oak (Quercus fusiformis). The Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) also occurs in the southeast of Texas, but not as far northwest as Crawford.

Various small communities in Texas have names based on the term, including Elm Mott, Long Mott, Mott, Mustang Mott, and Round Mott.