First of all, I play in Adventurers League, so if anyone answers this - please no house rules.
I have a druid character that, for the most part, fights in melee range (up close and very personal). Recently, she received the Staff of the Woodlands which is awesome, but also causes a small problem: she carries a shield, and needs to keep an unoccupied hand to hold her focus and use somatic spells.
According to the PHB, a druidic focus can be a staff that was "drawn whole out of a living tree". Nowhere in the description of the Staff of the Woodlands is its make mentioned; however, it can literally turn into a tree and vice-versa.
Can the Staff of the Woodlands be used as a druidic focus, or do I have to give it or my AC up?