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Home > Resources > North Carolina Trees > Pin Oak

Pin Oak

(Quercus palustris Muench.)

 
   
  The range of pin oak extends from southern New England to Oklahoma. This tree is quite common in the midwest, where it is usually found on wet, clay flats. While it grows naturally in North Carolina in only two isolated areas of the Piedmont, it has been widely planted throughout the state as an ornamental tree.

Pin oak leaves are 3 to 5 inches long and 2 to 5 inches wide. There usually are five lobes (occasionally seven to nine) that are separated by variable, but often wide, sinuses extending nearly to the midrib.

The acorn is small, 3/8 to 5/8 inch long, hemispherical and light brown. It is enclosed at the base by a thin, saucer-like cup. The bark is smooth and gray-brown until the tree is mature, when a pattern of narrow, dark gray, flat-topped ridges are separated by very shallow fissures.
 
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