Pin Oak 



283 



Fig. 235 



2. PIN OAK — Quercus palustris Du Roi 



This handsome tree occurs in wet river-bottom lands or on the borders of 

 swamps in rich soil from Massachusetts to Michigan and Missouri, southward to 

 Virginia, Tennessee, and Indian Territory. Its maximum height is about 40 

 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 m. It 

 is also called Swamp Spanish oak. Water 

 oak, and Water Spanish oak. 



The trunk is tall and straight, its 

 lower branches small, tough, and drooping, 

 the others are mostly spreading and longer, 

 forming, when not crowded, a symmetrical 

 conic tree, which in old age becomes 

 more round and irregular. The bark is 

 about 2.5 cm. thick, nearly smooth or cov- 

 ered with small close scales of a dark gray 

 color; on the branches it is smoother, light 

 brown and shining, or often reddish. The 

 twigs are slender, at first dark red and 

 short whitish hairy, soon becoming smooth, 

 green and shining, finally dark grayish 

 brown. The winter buds are ovoid, 3 mm. long, sharp pointed, their scales light 

 brown. The leaves are broadly oval to ovate or oblong in outline, 6 to 15 cm. 

 long, their S to 9 lobes oblong, lanceolate or triangular, usually with long bristle- 

 tipped teeth, the sinuses usually wide, deep, and rounded, the base wedge-shaped 

 or broadly tapering; they are thin and firm, dark green and shining above, pale 

 and smooth except for tufts of hairs in the axils of the prominent venation beneath, 

 turning a beautiful scarlet in the autumn before falling. The leaf-stalk is 2 to 5 

 cm. long, slender, nearly round, and yellow. The flowers appear in May when the 

 leaves are about one third unfolded ; the staminate in slender, hairy catkins, 3 to 5 

 cm. long; tjiie calyx is minutely hairy, its 4 or 5 lobes oblong, obtuse; stamens 4 

 or 5, exserted, their anthers oblong, shghtly notched, smooth and yellow. The 

 pistillate flowers are on short, hairy peduncles, their involucre scales ovate, woolly; 

 styles spreading or recurved, and light red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of 

 the second year, is sessile or very short-stalked, sohtary or in clusters; nut hemis- 

 pheric when young, becoming subglobose, 10 to 15 mm. long, Ught brown, often 

 striped; shell thin, pale and brownish velvety inside; cup saucer-shaped, 12 to 15 

 mm. across, embracing very Uttle of the nut, dark reddish brown and hairy on 

 inner surface, light reddish brown and shining on outer surface, the scales with 

 rounded apex and dark margins. 



The wood is hard, strong, coarse-grained, and light brown; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.69. It checks and warps badly; it is used in construction work and 

 for shingles. 



