Liveoak - a spell that creates a
treant (from a tree) under your command.
Animate Trees - a treant spell-like ability that animates trees. By RAW it allows for creating treants (
"The ability is otherwise similar to liveoak (caster level 12th)"). That's one interpretation.
My intepretation is that it just animates trees (as the name would suggest) like Animate Object or Animate Plants spells. It even specifically points out that the animated trees
fight like a treant and have fire vulnerability like a treant. So they aren't actually treants.
What are your toughts?