Northern Pin Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis)?
DBH:87.4 (cm) measured on 9/18/2020
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quercus ellipsoidalis, thenorthern pin oakorHill's oak, is a North American species of trees native to the north-centralUnited Statesand south-centralCanada, primarily in theGreat Lakes regionand theUpper Mississippi Valley.[2]It most commonly occurs on dry, sandy soils.[3]
Although the common name suggests a resemblance to thepin oak(Q. palustris),Q. ellipsoidalishas traditionally been thought to be closely related to thescarlet oak(Q. coccinea), and was in fact included in that species by many botanists. Recent work suggests that there is more gene flow between Hill's oak andblack oak(Q. velutina), but the phylogenetic position of these species is still uncertain (Hipp and Weber 2008). The morphological similarity betweenQ. ellipsoidalisandQ. coccinearemains a source of confusion, especially in northwestern Indiana and southern Cook County, Illinois.[4][5]
Quercus ellipsoidalisis a medium-sizeddeciduoustreegrowing to 20 meters (66 feet) tall with an open, rounded crown. Theleavesare glossy green, 7–13cm (23⁄4–5in) long and 5–10cm (2–4in) broad, lobed, with five or seven lobes, and deep sinuses between the lobes. Each lobe has 3-7 bristle-tipped teeth. The leaf is nearly hairless, except for small tufts of pale orange-brown down where the lobe veins join the central vein. Theacornstend to be ellipsoid (ellipse-shaped, from which its scientific name derives), though they tend to be highly variable and range to globose, 6–11mm (1⁄4–7⁄16in) long and 10–19mm (13⁄32–3⁄4in) broad, a third to a half covered in a deep cup, green maturing pale brown about 18 months afterpollination; the kernel is very bitter. The inner surface of the acorn cap is glabrous (hairless) to sparsely or moderately pubescent, and the hairs if present tend to be kinky rather than straight.[6][7]