Pin oak

Pin oak Quercus palustris

Description

A tall, pyramidal shaped oak, Quercus palustris, native to eastern North America. the pin oak has a light reddish brown hard wood that shrinks and cracks with drying. It is sometimes sold as red oak for flooring and lumber, but is weaker and contains more knots.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Quercus palustris; Sump-Eg (Dan.); Sumpfeiche (Deut.)

Pin oak foliage and acorn

Physical and Chemical Properties

• Tall tree growing to 30 m with pyramidal shape
• Bark=gray-brown developing thin ridges with age
• Leaves = oval with 5 to 9 bristle-tipped lobes and deep sinuses.
• Fruit=small, round acorns with scaly caps, maturation takes 2 years

Resources and Citations

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998