{"id":20685,"date":"2023-01-10T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=20685"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:27:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:27:48","slug":"intro-to-trees-of-indiana-pin-oak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/intro-to-trees-of-indiana-pin-oak\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro to Trees of Indiana: Pin Oak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The classic and trusted book “Fifty Common Trees of Indiana” by T.E. Shaw was\u00a0published in 1956 as a user-friendly guide to local species.\u00a0\u00a0Nearly 70 years later, the publication has\u00a0been updated through a joint effort by the Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources,\u00a0Indiana 4-H<\/a>, and\u00a0the\u00a0Indiana Department of Natural Resources<\/a>, and reintroduced as “An Introduction to Trees of Indiana.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0full publication<\/a>\u00a0is available for download for $7 in the Purdue Extension Education Store. The field guide helps identify common Indiana woodlot trees.<\/p>\n

Each week, the Intro to\u00a0Trees of Indiana web\u00a0series will offer a sneak peek at one species from the book, paired with an\u00a0ID That Tree video from Purdue Extension forester\u00a0Lenny Farlee<\/a>\u00a0to help visualize each species as it stands in the woods.\u00a0Threats to species\u00a0health\u00a0as well as\u00a0also\u00a0insight into the wood provided by the species, will be provided\u00a0through additional resources as well as the\u00a0Hardwoods of the Central Midwest<\/a> exhibit of the Purdue Arboretum, if available.\"Drawing<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, we take a look at the eighth of our featured oak varieties in Indiana, the Pin Oak or\u00a0Quercus palustris.<\/em><\/p>\n

The leaves of pin oak are multi-lobed, with lobes coming out at nearly a 90-degree angle from the center of the leaves, and feature bristle tips like all members of the red\/black oak family. On the pin oak, the alternately held leaves typically have less lobes than other members of the red\/black oak group. In the fall, leaves change from medium green to a red to reddish brown color.<\/p>\n

One key characteristic of pin oak are the branches, which angle downward especially on the lower part of the tree. The pin oak tends to keep its lower branches for a long period of time, which can create pin knots in the wood.<\/p>\n

The trunk of pin oak is typically straight and single stemmed, while the bark is smooth and gray and may develop dark fissures with age.<\/p>\n

The fruit is a rounded acorn with a relatively flat top with smooth scales, which covers only about one\u00a0quarter of the nut.<\/p>\n

Pin oaks, which grow to 60 to 70 feet tall and are relatively fast growing, are found mostly in moist to wet areas, such as streams, lakes and other wetlands, oftentimes in soils that have a medium to high acidity. Pin oaks also have been planted in many sites for landscape purposes.<\/p>\n

The natural range of the pin oak is in bottomlands and imperfectly drained soils from New Jersey south to Virginia and west to Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma as well as south into North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.<\/p>\n

The Morton Arboretum<\/a>\u00a0states that pin oak suffers greatly from chlorosis or yellowing of the leaves in soils with high pH. As with other oaks, the pin oak should be pruned in the dormant season to avoid attracting beetles that may carry oak wilt, which can be a potential disease problem along with oak blister.<\/p>\n