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Quercus palustris is mainly distributed in the eastern United States from Connecticut west to eastern Kansas, and south to Georgia, across to eastern Oklahoma; it is also native in the extreme south of Ontario, Canada. The pin oak is also well adapted to life in Australia (where it has been introduced) and is quite widespread across the Australian continent especially in the cooler southern States such as Victoria and New South Wales. Is also well adapted to life in Argentina, especially in the Río de la Plata region.
It is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 18–22 metres (59–72 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) diameter. It has an 8–14-metre (26–46 ft) spread. A 10-year-old tree will be about 8 metres (26 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 are 5–16 centimetres (2.0–6.3 in) long and 5–12 centimetres (2.0–4.7 in) 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, though individual leaves may be red for a time. The acorns, borne in a shallow, thin cap, are hemispherical, 10–16 millimetres (0.39–0.63 in) long and 9–15 millimetres (0.35–0.59 in) broad, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination. The acorn is unpalatable because the kernel is very bitter.
A fast-growing pioneer or riparian species, Pin Oak is relatively short-lived, with a maximum lifespan of 120 years against many oaks which can live several centuries. It is naturally a wetland tree, and develops a shallow, fibrous root system, unlike many oaks, which have a strong, deep taproot when young. It is confined to acidic soils, and does not tolerate limestone or sandy Florida soil, and grows at low altitudes from sea level up to 350 m (1,148 ft). The Latin specific epithet palustris means "of swamps".
A characteristic shared by a few other oak species, and also some beeches and hornbeams, is the retention of leaves through the winter on juvenile trees, a natural phenonemon referred to as marcesence. Young trees under 6 metres (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 species, dead pin oak branches will stay on the tree for many years.
The pin oak can give off a strange skunk-like odor. 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.
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 (Quercus phellos), overcup oak (Quercus lyrata), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii), swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii), and shellbark (Carya laciniosa) and shagbark (Carya 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).
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.
Pin Oak is one of the few Quercus species extensively used as a landscaping tree due to its ease of transplant and faster growth than most oaks. However, as it is naturally adapted to wet, acidic soils, it may develop a condition known as iron chlorosis on less suitable locations, causing the tree to shed leaves during the growing season and rot from the top down. Mature Pin Oaks are often too big to treat and this nutrient deficiency on alkaline soil may eventually kill them. The drooping lower branches can also be a problem, interfering with access for traffic and pedestrians. It is also cultivated in parks and large gardens in the United Kingdom, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
The wood 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 bark was used by some Native American tribes to make a drink for treatment of intestinal pain.
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.
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.
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.
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