Pin Oak, Swamp Oak, Swamp Spanish Oak
Quercus palustris · Fagaceae · 대왕참나무
How to spot it
Identified by the pyramidal form of young trees, smooth gray bark, deeply lobed leaves with U-shaped sinuses, and small round acorns with thin cups.
(original photo, new tab)Leaf · Photo Tournasol7 · CC BY-SA 3.0 
(original photo, new tab)Leaf · Photo Gmihail at Serbian Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 rs 
(original photo, new tab)Bark · Photo Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 
(original photo, new tab)Bark · Photo Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Look
- Leaves
- Glossy green leaves about 13 cm long with five bristle-tipped lobes and deep U-shaped sinuses; they turn deep red to reddish brown in autumn.
- Flowers
- Male flowers hang in long yellow to yellowish-green catkins and female flowers grow on short spikes, blooming in March to April.
- Fruit
- Round acorns 0.6 to 1.3 cm across with short stalks, light brown to reddish brown, with a shallow, thin cup covering one quarter to one third of the nut.
- Bark
- Young bark is smooth and reddish to gray-brown; it darkens and develops shallow furrows with age.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to the northeastern and north-central United States and southeastern Canada.
- Ecology
- A host plant for imperial moth larvae and several butterflies, and the acorns are important food for birds and mammals.