Pin Oak

Some of Drouin’s Pin Oaks are looking their best at the moment

The Pin Oak, Quercus palustris, is native to North America but is grown widely around the world as a street and parkland tree.

In its natural state, the Pin Oak is a wetland tree. It grows best on poorly-drained soils and it doesn’t tolerate shading from other trees particularly well. Quercus means oak, and palustris means marshland or swamp giving rise to an alternative common name of Swamp Oak.

The classical pyramidal shape of the Pin Oak is a result of the branches growing in a distinctive pattern: upper branches tend to point upwards, middle branches are roughly horizontal, and the lower branches often droop.

Unlike many other trees in the oak genus, Pin Oaks tend not to be long-lived – little more than 100 years usually. The Jarupa Oak in California, Quercus palmeri, is a clonal plant thought to be 13,000 years old!

Of interest: Pin Oak Court in Vermont South, named for the trees that define it, has another famous name, Ramsay Street – ring any bells?