Home › Volumes › Trees › How to Know the Trees

Maples — Part 2

The silver maple is a tree to count upon, if one is in search of a suitable species to plant on a Western prairie that has uncertain rainfall. It has ingratiated itself with people living farther east, who might better choose elms and other maples. It is a lazy man's tree, for it comes vigorously from seed, and bears transplanting, even when there are radical changes in soil and in climate to be met. It is a rapid grower, soon giving ample shade. But rapid growth implies brittle, weak wood, as a rule. Slowgrowing trees like elms should always be alternated with soft maples, to replace them after their brief race is run.

The habit of a tree must be considered when choosing a place to plant it. It is unwise to plant silver maples close to a house, as they have great horizontal spread, and the long, weak limbs are easily broken by ice and wind storms. Old trees are often cut back to a few main stubs above the trunk. A new top is soon formed by suckers that rise from the stubs, but the tree's symmetry is forever lost.

Local names often confuse the two Eastern early blooming, early fruiting maples. They may easily be distinguished by their mode of growth, flowers, fruits and leaves. Red maple limbs are small and rarely droop; those of the silver maple curve downward, but the twigs ascend. The brilliant colour belongs to the red maple; the deep-cleft, silver-lined leaves to the silver maple. The little, smooth, long-stemmed keys of the red species differ distinctly from the large, short-stemmed fruits of the other, which are woolly until almost ripe. In winter even, buds and twigs of the red maple are vividly red.

The Broad-leaved Maple, Oregon Maple (Acer macrophyllum, Pursh.)--A large, stout-limbed tree, 100 feet high, with compact head and drooping lower branches. Bark brown, furrowed and with plate-like scales; twigs reddish, with milky juice. Wood reddish brown, soft, light, close grained, susceptible of a satiny polish; often having curly and bird's-eye grain. Winter buds: axillary small; terminal larger, red, scaly. Leaves deeply cut, by deep, narrow sinuses, into 5 lobes, each of which has wavy margin, indented into secondary lobes; petioles 10 to 12 inches, slender; blades 8 to 12 inches broad and long, dark green, lustrous above; paler beneath; turn orange-yellow in autumn. Flowers yellow, fragrant, in long racemes in late spring. Fruits paired samaras, ripe in autumn; 1 1/2 inches long, with hairy nutlets, but smooth wings, slightly divergent. Preferred habitat, banks of streams and rich bottom lands. Distribution, south coast of Alaska to San Diego, California. Uses: Valuable ornamental and timber tree. Wood used for furniture and interior finish.

The great leaves that distinguish this species make it a favourite on the Pacific slope. Unfortunately it is not hardy north of Philadelphia, and does better in Europe than in our Eastern States. It really is happiest in the bottom lands of southern Oregon, where it forms forests and attains tremendous proportions. One must see it at home in order to appreciate this maple.

John Muir, writing of the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, says: "In a few favoured spots the broad-leaved maple grows to a height of a hundred feet in forests by itself, sending out large limbs in magnificent interlacing arches covered with mosses and ferns, thus forming lofty sky gardens, and rendering the underwoods delightfully cool. No finer forest ceiling is to be found than these maple arches."

The wood of the broad-leaved maple ranks highest of all deciduous lumber trees on the west coast. It is equal to the best maple of the Eastern States.

The Vine Maple (Acer circinatum, Pursh.) grows from British Columbia into northern California, and from the low bottom lands to an altitude of 1,000 feet, but always along streams. In the lowlands it throws up several stems from the root, which droop as they grow as if their weight overcame their strength. Branches that spring from these prostrate stems strike root, and soon the interlacing trunks and the branches they bear cover the ground to the exclusion of everything else.

The vine maple's leaf is thin and almost circular, with a heart-shaped base, and 7 to 9 triangular, cut-toothed lobes, uniform in size and shape. In summer they are green, with prominent veins and veinlets, and pale linings. In autumn they turn to orange and scarlet. The flowers are borne in terminal umbels, and the samaras are smooth, with widely divergent wings.

Sugar Maple, Rock, or Hard Maple (Acer Saccharum, Marsh.; Acer saccharinum, Wangh.; Acer barbatum, Michx.)--A large, handsome tree, 75 to 120 feet high, with many upright limbs forming an oval or oblong head. Sap sugary. Bark grey, deeply fissured. Wood reddish brown, close grained, tough, hard. Leaves broad, 4 to 5 inches across, 3 to 5-lobed, each lobe with straight sides and peaked apex, which has 3 to 5 prominent teeth with curved sinuses between; thin, dark green above, paler lining; turn to yellow, orange and red in the fall. Flowers, with the leaves in late spring, on long stems, in hairy, thick clusters, without petals, greenish; monoecious or polygamous. Fruits, October, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, smooth, in pairs, on stems, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, with wings only slightly diverging. Preferred habitat, rich, moist soil in valleys or uplands. Distribution, Great Lakes to Newfoundland; south along mountains to Florida; west to Nebraska and Texas. Uses: Best of all maples as lumber and shade trees. Wood used for flooring, interior finish of houses, saddles, furniture, boats, shoe lasts, all turned wares and fuel. Shows occasionally curly grain. Sap makes maple sugar.