Florida Sugar Maple 



651 



spect. While commonly smaller, it sometimes attains as great a size as the Sugar 

 maple, and is also known as Black sugar maple. 



The old bark is dark brown or nearly black, fissured and scaly. The young 

 twigs are usually hair)^, yellowish green, becoming orange-brown and smooth. 

 The leaves are often wider than long, sometimes 2 dm. broad, cordate at the base, 

 with the basal lobes often overlapping, dull darkish green above and nearly of 

 the same hue beneath, 3-lobed or 5-lobed, with the lobes entire or wavy-margined, 

 rarely with one or two large teeth ; they are quite densely hairy beneath when young, 

 and somewhat hairy, at least on the veins, when mature; the leaf-stalks are also 

 hairy, at least when young, and are expanded at the base, often bearing stipules 

 which are sometimes 3 or 4 cm. long. The flowers are borne on drooping, hairy 

 pedicels, and closely resemble those of the Sugar maple. The samaras are nearly 

 the same as those of the Sugar maple.,-but the wings are usually more divergent. 



The Black maple is a very attractiA^e shade tree, but is not as much planted as 

 the Sugar maple. Its wood is very similar to that of the Sugar maple. 



15. FLORIDA SUGAR MAPLE Acer floridanum (Chapman) Pax 



Acer saccharinum floridanum Chapman 



This southern relative of the Sugar maple is a graceful tree, rarely more than 

 18 meters high, with a maximum trunk diameter of about i meter. The bark is 

 chalky white, that of old trunks 

 rough, that of young trees smooth 

 or nearly so. The tree grows 

 naturally in river swamps from 

 Georgia and Florida to Louisiana, 

 and is reported to exist further 

 west in Texas and northern 

 Mexico. 



The young twigs are smooth 

 and green, soon turning brown. 

 The slender-stalked leaves are 

 orbicular in outline, or often 

 wider than long, 5 to 9 cm. 

 broad, deep green above, glau- 

 cous and smooth or somewhat 

 hairy on the veins beneath, trun- 

 cate at base, or but sHghtly cor- 

 date, 3-lobed or 5-lobed, with 



Fig. 603. Florida Sugar Maple. 



short, blunt or pointed, entire or wavy-margined lobes. The flowers resemble 

 those of the Sugar maple, but are smaller and shorter stalked, appearing with the 

 leaves, the drooping pedicels and the 5-lobed calyx hair}-. The samaras are green, 

 1.5 to 3 cm. long, the more or less divergent wings 8 mm. wide or less. 



