Pin oak

Quercus palustris, the Pin oak or Swamp Spanish oak, is an oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae.

Distribution

It is native to North America, mainly in the eastern

Eastern United States

The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...

 United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 from Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 west to eastern Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, and south to Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 but not Florida, across to eastern Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

; it is also native in the extreme south of Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The Pin Oak is also well adapted to life in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 (where it has been introduced) and is quite widespread across the Australian continent especially in the cooler southern States such as Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Is also well adapted to life in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 especially in the Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

 region.

Description

It is a medium-sized deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 tree growing to 100+ ft tall, with a trunk up to 1 m (3 ft) diameter. It has an 8-14 m (25-45 ft) spread. A 10-year-old tree will be about 8 m (25 ft) tall. The crown is broad conic when young, with numerous small branches radiating out from a central leader. When older, some upper branches become quite large and the central leader is lost, while the lower branches gradually droop downwards.

The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are 5-16 cm long and 5-12 cm broad, lobed, with five or seven lobes. Each lobe has 5-7 bristle-tipped teeth. The sinuses are typically u-shaped and extremely deep cut. In fact, there is approximately the same amount of sinus area as actual leaf area. The leaf is mostly hairless, except for a very characteristic tuft of pale orange-brown down on the lower surface where each lobe vein joins the central vein. Overall autumn leaf coloration is generally bronze

Bronze (color)

At right is displayed the color bronze.Bronze is a medium brown color which resembles the actual alloy bronze.The first recorded use of bronze as a color name in English was in 1753...

, though individual leaves may be red for a time. The acorn

Acorn

The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...

s, borne in a shallow, thin cap, are hemispherical, 10-16 mm long and 9-15 mm broad, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination

Pollination

Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...

. The acorn is unpalatable because the kernel is very bitter.

The species usually lives only 90 to 120 years. It is naturally a wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

 tree, and develops a shallow, fibrous root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

 system, unlike many oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

s, which have a strong, deep taproot when young. It is confined to acid

Acid

An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...

ic soils, and does not tolerate limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 or sandy Florida soil, and grows at low altitudes from sea level up to 350 m. The specific name palustris means "of swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s".

A characteristic shared by a few other oak species, and also some beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

es and hornbeam

Hornbeam

Hornbeams are relatively small hardwood trees in the genus Carpinus . Though some botanists grouped them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae, modern botanists place the hornbeams in the birch subfamily Coryloideae...

s, is the retention of leaves through the winter on juvenile tissue. Young trees under 6 m (20 ft) will often be covered with leaves year-round, though the leaves die in the fall, remaining attached to the shoots until the new leaves appear in the spring. As with many other oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 species, dead Pin oak branches will stay on the tree for many years.

The acorns are small with a thin, shallow cap.

The pin oak is in the red oak subgenus: pointed lobes.

The sinuses are very deeply cut and u-shaped.

The amount of sinus area is approximately equivalent to the amount of actual leaf area.

The upper branches point upwards, the middle branches are perpendicular to trunk, and the lower branches angle down.
Pin oak grows primarily on level or nearly level, poorly drained alluvial floodplain and river bottom soils with high clay content. Pin oak is usually found on sites that flood intermittently during the dormant season but do not ordinarily flood during the growing season. It does not grow on the lowest, most poorly drained sites that may be covered with standing water through much of the growing season. However, it does grow extensively on poorly drained upland "pin oak flats" on the glacial till plains of southwestern Ohio, southern Illinois and Indiana, and northern Missouri. The level topography and presence of a claypan in the soil of these areas cause these sites to be excessively wet in winter and spring.

Associated forest cover

Pin oak is a major species in only one forest cover type, Pin Oak-Sweetgum, which is found on bottom lands and some upland sites throughout the central portion of the pin oak range. Associated species in this type include red maple (Acer rubrum), American elm (Ulmus americana), black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), willow oak (Q. phellos), overcup oak (Q. lyrata), bur oak (Q. macrocarpa), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii), swamp chestnut oak (Q. michauxii), and shellbark (Carya laciniosa) and shagbark (C. ovata) hickories. Pin oak and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) vary in their relative proportions in this cover type. Large areas of almost pure pin oak occur on the "pin oak flats" of the upland glacial till plains or in the bottom lands of the lower Ohio and central Mississippi River valleys.

Pin oak is an associated species in Silver Maple-American Elm in the bottom lands along the Ohio, Wabash, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. A variant of this type, silver maple-American elm-pin oak-sweetgum, is found along major streams in southern Illinois and Indiana.

Pin oak also occurs in Black Ash-American Elm-Red Maple in poorly drained bottom lands in northern Ohio and Indiana along with silver maple (Acer saccharinum), swamp white oak, sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), black tupelo, and eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides).

Flowering and fruiting

Pin oak is monoecious; flowers appear at about the time the leaves develop in the spring. Staminate flowers are borne on aments that develop from buds formed in the leaf axils of the previous year, and pistillate flowers are borne on short stalks from the axils of current-year leaves. Pollination is by wind. Fruit is an acorn (nut) that matures at the end of the second growing season after flowering. Acorns are dispersed from September to early December.

Uses

The bark was used by some Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 tribes to make a drink for treatment of intestinal pain.

Pin oak is one of the most popular ornamental trees in the United States. The fibrous root system makes it easy to transplant, and thereby cheap to propagate, compared to most other oaks. However, because the tree is adapted for wet, acid soils, it may suffer a condition called iron chlorosis, in which the foliage yellows, when planted in drier, alkaline, and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

-poor soils. The drooping lower branches can also be a problem, interfering with access for traffic and pedestrians.

The wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 is generally marketed as red oak, but is of significantly inferior quality, being somewhat weaker, often with many small knots.1. The wood is hard and heavy and is used in general construction and for firewood.

The name "pin oak" is possibly due to the many small, slender twigs, but may also be from the historical use of the hard wood for pins in wooden building construction (Harlow 1942).

The pin oak is the only known foodplant of Bucculatrix domicola caterpillars.

Reaction to competition

Pin oak is classed as intolerant of shade. It is less tolerant than elm, boxelder (Acer negundo), sweetgum, hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), and ash but is more tolerant than eastern cottonwood and black willow. Pin oak usually grows in even-aged stands of dominant and codominant trees. Intermediate and suppressed trees in such stands usually die within a few years of being overtopped. Single pin oaks in mixed stands usually are dominants. Pin oak is considered a subclimax species. It persists on heavy, wet soils because it produces an abundance of acorns which, if released, grow faster on these sites than most of its competitors.

Damaging agents

Although pin oak is very tolerant of dormant-season flooding, it is much less tolerant of growing-season flooding. Trees may be injured or killed by intermittent growing season flooding over several successive years. The trees can usually survive one growing season of continuous flooding but will be killed by continuous flooding over 2 or 3 consecutive years. Pin oak is rated as "intermediately tolerant" to growing season flooding. Also, since the bark of pin oak is relatively thin, the species is especially susceptible to damage by fire and decay associated with fire wounds.