Tree of the day: Quercus palustris, Pin or swamp oak, Friends Bridge
Quercus palustris is a species of deciduous broadleaf flowering plants (in the Fagaceae or Beech family), native to eastern and central North America.
Quercus palustris is a species of deciduous broadleaf flowering plants (in the Fagaceae or Beech family), native to eastern and central North America. It has a straight trunk and a pyramidal shape, in which the upper branches point upwards, the middle branches outwards, and the lower branches downwards. Its leaves are moderately large, with two or three lobes on each side and one at the end, all with pointed teeth, and more deeply divided than the leaves of Quercus rubra. Their upper surface is bright green and shiny, and they turn bright red and bronze in autumn.
The native habitat of Quercus palustris is river banks and wetlands. It forms a shallow root system, which makes it relatively easy to transplant. Because of this feature, its attractive form, colourful autumn foliage, tolerance of urban conditions and fairly fast growth, Quercus palustris is widely planted in streets and parks.
about this species
See more trees and close-up photos of this species
This photo is one of 9328 photos of 871 trees in 331 species
This website is a virtual arboretum, created for interest, education and beauty. It exhibits some of the thousands of trees, of both native and exotic species, that grow in Whiteknights Park, the main campus of the University of Reading. Many of them have been planted since the university arrived in 1947, but some have been here since the 19th century or earlier, when Whiteknights was the gardens and parkland of large houses. More than a hundred of the trees are listed in The Tree Register, nine as British Isles champions (the largest or tallest of their species).
Please send any comments about this website to whiteknights-trees@reading.ac.uk.
The previous version of this website is here.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank: Rupert Taylor, Owen Johnson, Alastair Culham, Jonathan Mitchley, Marcus Wheeler, Benoît Vannière, Miguel Teixeira and Claire Hawkins for tree identifications; Brian Hunt and Trevor Smith for testing routes and contributing text; Dylan Parkes, Martin Watts, Emilija Rudzinskaite, Brian and Trevor for collaboration on the centenary project; Dan Hodson for useful code examples; Studio Lift for website style; Brian, Trevor and Nathanaël van Twillert for comments and suggestions on website user experience; Benoît, Marcus, Steve George, Brian, Trevor, the Friends of the University of Reading, and other friends for their encouragement during the development of the website; the University and its grounds staff for maintaining Whiteknights Park.