The Pin Oak of Sittard's Stadspark

This pin oak grows in Sittard's Stadspark, banded by the national register to a planting around 1910, roughly 120 years old. Pin oak is another North American import, native to wet bottomland from the Great Lakes down through the Mississippi valley, and it was planted across Dutch parks through the early twentieth century for a growth habit unlike almost any native oak: a straight central trunk holding a distinctly layered crown, upper branches reaching up, middle branches running level, and lower branches sweeping down toward the ground, sometimes low enough to brush a visitor's head. Its leaves are the most deeply cut of any oak commonly planted in Europe, with narrow, bristle-tipped lobes that give the crown a fine, almost feathery texture from a distance, and in autumn they turn a rich bronze-red that holds on the branches, often through much of the winter, longer than most other oaks manage. A tulip tree the register also lists grows a short walk away in the same park, so this pin oak is one stop on what could be a short walk through Stadspark's older plantings. The register records nothing further about this tree specifically. If you know more, tell us.