TEEES OF NORTH CAROLINA 79 



126. Acer saccharum Marsh. Sugar Maple. 



This is the finest of all our maples and very de- 

 sirable in cultivation. Leaves large, about 4%-6% 

 inches long and at least as wide, some very small ones, 

 typically with three large lobes above, each with two 

 or four distant teeth, and two narrow, tooth-like lobes 

 at the base, deep green above, whitish and somewhat 

 glaucous below, smooth except for a few small tufts 

 of hairs in the axils of the veins below. The Sugar 

 Maple is plentiful in our mountain valleys and slopes, 

 and reaches a height of over 100 feet. Ayres and 

 Ashe remark that it is "Common north of the Cowee 

 mountains, above an elevation of 2,000 feet on cold 

 moist soil." The Florida Maple (see below) is 

 much like this and is usually confused with it. Their 

 areas approach each other closely if they do not over- 

 lap, and observations should be made to find out if 

 the two forms intergrade as they approach each other. 



127. Acer floridanum (Chapm.) Pax. Southern Sugar 



Maple. 



This is the close relative of the Sugar Maple that 

 takes its place in the Piedmont and coastal plain re- 

 gions of this state and from thence southward; just 

 how far it extends towards the mountains has not 

 been worked out, or whether it intergrades there with 

 the Sugar Maple. We have it as far west as Chapel 

 Hill, where it is common along creeks and toward 

 the bases of rocky hills, and is often planted in lawns. 

 It reaches here a circumference of 5 feet, 3 inches. 



