Black Maple
Black Maple- Acer nigrum
Description of Plant
Leaf: 3-5 main
veins from base with 3-5 broad pointed lobes. Leaves are opposite 10-14 cm long
and wide. Edges can be wavy or have blunt teeth.
Flower: Male and
female can be on the same or separate trees. Flowers are 5mm in length with
bell shaped 5-lobbed yellow calyx in drooping clusters on long slender hairy
stalks with leaves in the early spring.
Fruit: 2.5- 3.2 cm
in length including the long paired wings and containing 1 seed that matures in
the autumn.
Twig: Brown,
slender and hairy when young.
Bark: Dark gray or
blackish becoming deeply furrowed.
Form: Large tree
with a rounded dense crown of 3 lobed leaves that can reach a height of 80
feet.
Discussion of the Plant
The Black Maple is
closely related to the Sugar Maple in that the sweet sap can be tapped for
maple syrup. The ranges for both trees are similar but the Black Maple does not
extend as far north as the Sugar Maple.
Copyright
© Sue Grabowski,
Gail Slowinski, Carl Schurz High School 2003
References
Coombes, Allen, J,
Smithsonian Handbook of Trees, Dorling Kindersley,
Little, Elbert,
L., Field Guide to Trees, Alfred A.
Symonds, George,
W.D., The Tree Identification Book, Quill Publishing,