Pin Oak

Pin Oak
Nicolas Connault / Flickr
Quercus palustris

Pin Oaks have a strong central leader, and a distinctive branching pattern with lower branches reaching down, middle branches horizontal, and upper branches reaching skyward. Trees do not self-prune well, and so the lower part of the crown is typically cluttered with the residue of dead branches. As the Latin word “palustris” (“of swamps”) indicates, Pin Oak is a wetland species, and so is tolerant of the low-oxygen environment of compacted urban soils.