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, London, 2002.

Little, Elbert, L., Field Guide to Trees, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1980.

Symonds, George, W.D., The Tree Identification Book, Quill Publishing, New York, N.Y. 1958.