Mystery Plant: Box elder, Acer negundo

All of the maple trees of the world belong to a genus which has been named “Acer.” There are well over 100 different species, and practically all of them are native to the northern hemisphere. Maples play an important role in various ecological settings and forest types, and several species have considerable economic value. For instance, there is sugar maple, from which maple syrup comes… maybe that’s the best example. Otherwise, the wood of different maples is useful traditionally in making musical instruments, bowling pins (although I can’t imagine that some sort of plastic is now more commonly used for them), and just good for carving, too. Oh right, and also baseball bats. Maples are some of the most attractive canopy species in temperate forests, especially in the autumn, with really colorful foliage, one of the big reasons to spend time driving around in the mountains around here at “peak” season.

All maples are what we say are dioecious… this is a term we’ve used before, and it refers to a species whose individual plants are either staminate (“male”) and producing pollen, or pistillate (“female”), producing seeds. The leaves are always opposite, that is, two at a time on a twig. The leaves are simple, with a single blade, and usually equipped with lobes, most of the time angular, and often toothed. Think of the maple leaf on the Canadian flag. Or maybe a Japanese maple. The fruits are distinctive, and they are called “samaras”: each is equipped with an elongated wing which allows it to helicopter through the air once dropped.