VAL-01: Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)

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Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)

Young Bark Mature Bark

Leaf Leaf

Bud Flowers

Fruit Fruit

Silhouette Late Winter

Common Name: Silver Maple
Scientific Name: Acer saccharinum
Other Names:

Leaf: Simple, opposite; thin; 10-16cm long with 5 narrow, deeply notched and pointed lobes; upper side bright light green, underside silvery white; teeth coarse, irregular, sharp; base even or heart-shaped.
Flower: Flowers early in the spring before the leaves unfold; males small, greenish yellow; females small, reddish yellow; clustered.
Fruit: Samaras (maple keys), pairs of large winged seeds, 4-7cm long; often uneven in length; widely angled; suspended in clusters.
Twig: Twigs are green or red brown; buds are conical and red.
Bark: On young trees, thin smooth, and silvery gray; on mature trees, darker reddish brown, vertically fissured, almost shaggy (scales loose at top and bottom).
Wood: Relatively heavy, hard, strong and stiff; straight-grained and fine textured; heartwood light brown.

Facts About This Tree:
1. Freeman’s maple can be mistaken for silver maple, but silver maple’s leaf has much deeper notches and the lobes are thinner. Silver maple also has distinctive maple keys with one wing shorter than the other.
2. Silver maple grows 20-30m tall and 60-100cm wide in trunk diameter, and lives 100-130 years.
3. Silver maple prefers rich and moist soils bordering rivers, lakes and swamps. It withstands spring flooding and its shallow widespread roots bind fragile soils to prevent erosion.
4. Large old silver maples are frequently hollow, and provide ideal nesting cavities for black ducks, goldeneyes, wood ducks and mergansers.
5. The sugar content of silver maple sap is only half that of sugar maple; twice as much sap is needed to yield the same amount of sugar.
6. Fallen branches of silver maple can sprout roots and grow into new trees.
7. Drawbacks as a street tree include heavy seed and leaf fall, brittle limbs likely to break during ice storms, large size, and aggressive roots that often clog sewer pipes.

Lat, Long: 43.75082,-79.82342
Diameter (DBH): 6.1 cm
Last Year Modified: 2015
Carbon Stored in this Tree: 6.82 kg of C
Equivalent CO2: 25.00 kg of C

Find more trees in Valleywood.

Reference
1. Blouin, Glen. 2001. An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies. Erin, ON. Boston Mills Press
2. Petrides George A. 1998. A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada, Second Edition. NY. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. Ministry of Natural Resources. 2013. The Tree Atlas. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/xfqDVO
4. Photo Credit: Kathryn Chin; Daniel J. Kim; Seed by Daniel Tigner, Canadian Forest Tree Essences, Bud by Cephas via Wikimedia Commons

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