203. ACER CIRCINATUM VINE MAPLE. 21 



203. ACER CIRCINATUM, PURSH. 

 VINE MAPLE. 



Ger., Rebendhorn ; Fr., Erable de vigne ; Sp., Arce de vid. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER-; -.Leaven nearly circular in outline, 2 to 7 in. across, 

 palmately lobed, sometimes nearly to the middle, with 7 to 9 acute irregularly 

 doubly-serrate lobes, cordate at base with broad shallow sinuses, thin, puberu- 

 lous at first but glabrous at maturity with the exception of a tuft of pale hairs at 

 the base above, dark green above, paler beneath and in autumn changing to 

 orange and scarlet tints; petioles 1 to 2 in. long, stout, enlarged and clasping at 

 base; winter buds about | in. long and subtended by a stout scale with conspicu- 

 ously ciliate margin; branchlets glabrous and somewhat glaucous, pale green or 

 reddish. Flowers appear when leaves are about half grown, in loose drooping 10 

 to 12-flowered corymbs terminating slender 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate 

 and pistillate together; sepals red or purple, villous, 2 to 3 lines long; petals much 

 shorter, greenish white, broadly cordate at base and involuted at apex; stamens 

 6 to 8 with slender filaments villous at base and much longer than the petals in 

 the sterile flowers, but shorter in the fertile flowers; pistil with glabrous ovary 

 bearing two wide spreading lobes, bifed style and long exserted stigmas. Fruit 

 ripens in late autumn, the samaras glabrous, each about 1 in. or a trifle more in 

 length, reddish in color and spreading at about right angles to the pedicel; 

 seed ovate, pale brown. 



(The specific name, cercinatum, is a Latin word meaning made round and refer- 

 ring to the circular outline of the leaves. ) 



The Vine Maple occasionally attains the height of 30 or 40 feet 

 (10 m.), but being generally more or less procumbent and vine -like its 

 real length is often greater. Its trunk is occasionally 12 or 14 inches 

 (0. 30 m.) in thickness and covered with a thin smoothish gray-brown 

 bark, somewhat striated lengthwise and fissured with shallow grooves 

 and finally exfoliating in thinnish brittle scales. 



In this curious tree we see a habit of growth which is quite unique 

 in our American forests. AVhile not strictly vine-like, it seems to 

 have to recline more or less upon surrounding objects,. its trunk being 

 perhaps for several feet prostrate on the ground, and then rising up 

 to sprawl its branches across the wreck of an old cedar stub or other 

 support, and elevate its branchlets with handsome leaves and showy- 

 winged fruit to such light as the taller surrounding forest may permit 

 it to have. Its entire trunk and branches to the final leaf -bearing 

 twigs, may be loaded with the luxurious moss and lichens which bur- 

 den everything in the damp forests of the regions in which it thrives. 

 Often it sends up several stems from the same base, and in alluvial 

 bottom-lands forms exclusive and almost impenetrable thickets, acres 

 in extent, the branches taking root wherever they touch the ground 

 and the. dense shade prohibiting the growth of all other plants beneath. 



HABITAT. The coast region of British Columbia and southward 

 through Washington, Oregon and to Mendocino Co., California, 



