Pin oak

Range: Eastern North America. Often found in pure stands, on poorly drained sites, in the foothill zone, in areas of floodplain rivers and streams, meadows, on deep, wet, waterlogged clay soils and loams where water can stand for several weeks. It looks excellent as solitary, avenue and group plantings, along the banks of water bodies. In cultivation since the mid-18th century. Grows in parks of Ukraine (Chernivtsi), Belarus, Voronezh region. In Saint Petersburg it freezes out. Used in combination with horse-chestnut, American ash, white mulberry, blue spruce, plane tree, liriodendron; ginkgo, pterocarya, Norway maple and sycamore, narrow-leaved oleaster and other species.

Appearance: a slender tree up to 25 m tall and 10-15 m wide, narrow-pyramidal in youth, later with a broad-pyramidal crown, young shoots thin, pendulous, reddish-brown, trunk bark greenish-brown, remains smooth for a long time, grows slowly, 20-30 cm per year.

Fruits: acorns, sessile, almost spherical, up to 1.5 cm, one-third enclosed by the cupule; store for spring sowing in slightly moist sand. Sow in autumn after collection and air-drying; viability is preserved until the following spring, field germination 80 - 90%.

Leaves: up to 12 cm long, with 5-7 deeply cut, almost to the middle of the leaf, toothed lobes, bright green above, lighter below, with tufts of hairs in the vein axils, in autumn — bright purple.

Requirements: sun/partial shade, warmth-loving, frost-resistant, suitable for urban conditions, wind-resistant.

Soils: from moderately dry to wet soils; avoid high lime content.

Zone: 5b