15. Pin Oak
Fagaceae
Quercus palustris
Specimen Size: 74.2ft tall, 20in in diameter.
Location: Lining Stevens Way on both sides North of the Electrical Engineering/ Paul Allen Center
Historical Background: The common name of this tree has many theorized origins from the “pin knots” in the timber, its pin-like branchlets, and/or the use of its wood as pins during the colonial age. Numerous Native American tribes would extract the bark’s liquid to create a treatment for intestinal pain. Ground acorns would also be used to make coffee and soup.
Non-native
Native Range: Eastern U.S.
Identifying Features: A beautiful broad tree, these deciduous pin oaks display several traits indicative of their classification as a red oak. The leaves are deeply lobed with tips spined and toothed. The leaves are a deep green on top and whitish green below, making up a narrow crown on long slender branches, slim like pins which gives the species its name. The leaves turn a vibrant red in fall, but not quite so richly as some of its red oak cousins. It produces small nearly sessile (almost directly attached to the tree at the base) acorns.
Identifying Features In Depth:
Form: Broad and rounded with a narrow crown to a height of about 80’ (25m). Straight trunk branching into many slender long and sometimes pendulous (held up without visible support) branches thin like pins.
Leaves: Shiny green on top and pale on bottom to a length of about 6” (15cm), deeply lobed with sharp toothed tips on the ends of the lobes. New leaves appear a yellow color in spring and emerge with catkins, then turn a dark red in fall.
Bark: Can be smooth light grey or darker and furrowed, varies on the tree.
Reproductive Bodies: Catkins appear in early spring and yellowish in color. Pollination of female flowers leads to small 1.5cm acorns in a rough cup which is nearly sessile in nature attached very close to the twig and often in clusters. Its acorns are only about half the size of the acorns of its relative the northern pin oak.
Native range of Quercus palustris in the midwest and northeastern United States. Map compiled by the USGS.
Below is the description found for this species on the original Brockman Memorial Tree Tour:
Historic Tree Tour Information: Stevens Way and the nearby vicinity have several Pin Oaks. Native to the eastern U.S., this species is a strong, undemanding urban shade tree. Pin Oak bears deeply lobed leaves, small acorns, and pretty fall color. On young trees the dead leaves hang on to the branches through the winter and fall off when new leaves appear in the spring. The name "pin" refers to plentiful slender twigs, which end up ultimately as pin-like knots in the wood.
The pin oak thrives in bottom lands or moist uplands and is often found growing on poorly drained clay soils. The acorns of the pin oak are an important food source for mallards and wood ducks during their fall migration. The acorns are also a food source for deer, squirrels, turkeys, woodpeckers, and blue jays. Mulch made from the leaves will repel slugs and grubs. The galls that form on the trunk can be used to produce black ink, and the wood has been used for the production of shingles, furniture, and wooden nails. Twenty four oak species exist on campus including: Cork Oak, Red Oak, Bur Oak, Shumard Red Oak and Oregon White Oak*.
*The Cork Oak fell victim to a storm in the early months of 2020 and is no longer present on campus.
