Tree to 30 m tall, trunk to 0.9 m in diameter Leaves: opposite, reddish-stalked, bright green above, silvery white beneath, 14 - 20 cm long, 10 - 18 cm wide, deeply five-lobed, irregularly toothed, often hairy beneath. Fall color is pale yellow. Flowers: either male or female, found on the same (monoecious) or different (dioecious) plants, borne in clusters, greensih yellow to red. Fruit: winged (samara), paired, 4 - 7.5 cm long, with wings forming a 90 degree angle, abundant. Bark: gray to brownish gray, smooth when young, developing furrows and thin flat scales that may curl at the ends. Twigs: green, turning reddish brown to chestnut brown with age, releasing an unpleasant odor when scratched. Terminal buds: red to reddish brown, 6 - 8 mm long with a nearly rounded tip.

Similar species: Acer rubrum and Acer saccharinum are sometimes difficult to distinguish. Acer rubrum has smaller fruit with wings spread to 50 or 60 degrees, shallowly lobed leaves, and the twigs lack an unpleasant odor. Acer x freemanii is a naturally occurring hybrid between A. saccharinum and A. rubrum. It combines the faster growth rate, adaptability to many soil types, and deeply lobed leaves of A. saccharinum with the red fall color and stronger branch structure of A. rubrum.

Flowering: March to mid April

Habitat and ecology: Common in floodplains, along ponds and streams, and in wet, poorly drained, muck or peat soils.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: Acer saccharinum is an important source of food and shelter for wildlife. Fox, squirrels, birds, and other animals eat the abundant seeds, while deer eat young leaves and twigs. The trunk tends to become hollowed from heart-rot, providing shelter for squirrels and raccoons. Acer saccharinum is one of the fastest growing trees in the Chicago Region and was once commonly planted as a street tree. Unfortunately, it is disease prone and weak wooded, which leads to hazardous branch splitting. Today, other species have replaced A. saccharinum as commonly planted street trees.

Etymology: Acer is derived from a Latin word meaning sharp, which refers to the hardness of the wood. Saccharinum means sugary.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Tree to 30 m, with light gray bark separating in large plates; winter-buds with 6-10 imbricate scales; lvs deeply 5-lobed, silvery-white beneath, the lobes acuminate and ±sharply toothed or with minor lobes along the sides, the terminal lobe concavely narrowed to the base; fls from clusters of lateral buds, opening in earliest spring, greenish-yellow or reddish, each cluster unisexual; pedicels short, scarcely exceeding the strongly ciliate bud-scales; cal gamosepalous, shallowly lobed; stamens long-exsert; disk vestigial or wanting; ovary densely hairy; frs falling before the lvs are fully grown, the mericarps 3.5-5+ cm, sparsely hairy; 2n=52. Moist or wet soil, especially along riverbanks; N.B. and s. Que. to Minn., and e. S.D., s. to Ga., w. Fla., La., and Okla. (Argentacer s.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Infrequent to frequent and locally abundant in most parts of the state. It is always found in wet places, usually in soil with little organic matter except in the lake region; along streams and about lakes and sloughs and low places in woods.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 1

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW

Diagnostic Traits: Leaves simple, palmately lobed and veined, the terminal lobe ca. 2/3 the length of the blade, the margins flaring from the base, the sinuses of principal lobes toothed; petioles with watery sap; flowers with inconspicuous petals; fruits usually >4 cm.

Deam (1932): The silver maple has been used extensively for shade tree planting. The branches are very brittle, and ice storms sometimes break off so many branches that the tree may be badly injured. The shade trees of this species are in many part of the state being killed by scale insects, and for this reason it should not be used. On account of its rapid growth it has also been much used for windbreaks but this practce should be discouraged and better species used.