Pin Oak Tree or Swamp Spanish oak, is a medium-sized deciduous tree and is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of transplant, its relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance. Its distinctive shape is considered unique among hardwoods. Pin Oak one of the best oaks to plant on wet anaerobic soils. It will thrive where most other trees fail. It's particularly useful where tarmac or concrete cover much of the root system and oxygen is depleted. Where space is available it makes an ideal town tree. In its youth it is a light branched upright specimen, sometimes developing pointed spur shoots (pins). Later in life it becomes massive but retains fairly smooth, not rugged, grey-brown bark. It has typical 'American oak' leaves with pointed lobes ending in a short hair like tooth, they are fairly deeply indented which gives a light open feel to the foliage. In the autumn whole trees or sometimes only selected branches colour well to orange-brown and red. Usually a group of individuals planted in one place colour differently to each other, and at slightly different times. This is an ideal landscape tree, it can be used in most situations to advantage. Its natural distribution is from New England to southern Ontario and west to Oklahoma and eastern Kansas. It's a floodplain tree that is seldom found on high ground.