Northern Pin Oak (RWMWD Plant Guide)

Northern Pin Oak

Quercus ellipsoidalis

Summary ³

Quercus ellipsoidalis, the northern pin oak or Hill's oak, is a North American species of trees native to the north-central United States and south-central Canada, primarily in the Great Lakes region and the Upper Mississippi Valley. It occurs on moist, clay soils.

Description ⁴

Family:
Fagaceae (Beech)

Height:
40 to 70 feet at maturity, but can grow as tall as 100 feet

Habit:
Single-stemmed tree; Medium in size; Crown is rounded, irregular in shape, and often narrow; Trunk is short with low branches; DBH up to 4½’, typically closer to 2’ at maturity.

Leaves:
Leaves (up to 5½” long and wide) are alternately attached and have a typical oak shape - obovate (reaching their broadest around ⅔ of the way up the length of the leaf) and multi-lobed. Leaves have 2-4 pairs of pointed primary lobes, often with 2-5 pointed secondary lobes at their tips. Sinuses are broad, U-shaped, and very deep, nearly reaching the center vein of the leaf. Upper leaf surface is dark green and very shiny.

Bark:
Young bark is gray-brown and smooth. Older bark is gray to gray-brown, with blocky ridges and shallow, interconnected furrows. Inner bark is yellow to orange.

Flower:
Male flowers grow in groups of green, dangling, string-like clusters (1½-4” long) called catkins. Bright red female flowers (up to ⅛” across) grow on stout stalks in clusters of 1-3 from the newest leaf axils.

Fruit:
Fruit (½-⅔” long) is an oval-shaped nut (acorn) with a smooth-scaled gray-brown to red-brown cap that covers ⅓ to ½ of the nut surface.

Bloom time:
March-May

Fall color:
Deep Red, Scarlet, Maroon, Brown

Nicknames:
Pin Oak

Habitat:
Pin Oak is drought-tolerant and shade-intolerant - it prefers full to partial sun, and dry to well-drained, sandy soils. It grows in savannas and upland deciduous woodlands, often alongside aspens, cherries, and other species of oaks.

Wildlife Benefits:
Acorns are a food source for many species of birds and small mammals. Provides cover and nesting habitat for a variety of wildlife, including birds, bats, squirrels, and raccoons.

Notes:
Like other species of red oaks, this species is highly susceptible to oak wilt.
In upland forests, this species often grows alongside the Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra), and they can be very difficult to tell apart due to similarities in their leaves and bark. The easiest way to distinguish the two species is by their acorns - the acorns of the Northern Pin Oak have a cap that covers most of the nut, while Northern Red Oak’s acorns are longer, with a cap that barely covers the top of the nut. Outside of their fruiting season, they can be distinguished by subtle differences in their leaves. The leaves of the Northern Pin Oak typically have broader, deeper sinuses than those of the Northern Red Oak, and the upper surface of Northern Pin Oak leaves is noticeably shiny in comparison to the duller leaves of the Northern Red Oak.

References:
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/tree/northern-pin-oak
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=QUEL
https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/oak_northernpin.html
https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/northern_pin_oak.html
http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Plants/northern_pin_oak.html
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/queell/all.html

Range ⁴

Sources and Credits

(c) eknuth, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by eknuth
Adapted by Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_ellipsoidalis
(c) Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

iNat Map

Family	Fagaceae
Habit	Tree
Origin	native
Life cycle	perennial
Bloom time	(3) March, (4) April, (5) May
*sites	Snail Lake

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Northern Pin Oak

Summary 3

Description 4

Range 4