Ash-Leaved Maple 



(^53' 



toothed lobes, short-pointed, cor- 

 date at the base, the upper surface 

 bright green and smooth, the lower 

 somewhat paler green and fmely 

 haiiy, even when old. Like the 

 other Sugar maples the flowers are 

 in clusters at and near the ends of 

 the twigs, and appear with the leaves 

 or a little before them. The droop- 

 ing pedicels and the 5-lobed calyx 

 are hair\'; the stamens of the starhi- 

 nate flowers are relatively shorter 

 than those of the eastern trees, 

 being about one and one-half times 



Fig. 605. Mountain Sugar Maple. 



as long as the calyx. The samaras vary from 2 to 4 cm. long, the broad wings 

 1.5 cm. wider or less, either nearly parallel or quite widely divergent. 



The wood is hard, close-grained, light brown to nearly white; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.69. 



Local names are Large-toothed maple. Hard maple, and Western sugar maple. 



18. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE Acer Negundo Linnaeus 



Negundo aceroides Moench 



The Ash-leaved maple, often called Box elder, ranges naturally from western 

 Vermont to western New Jersey and northern Florida, westward to Ontario, 



Manitoba, South Dakota, Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. 

 It is not native along the Atlantic coast, but is widely 

 planted for ornament. The tree attains a maximum 

 height of about 23 meters and a trunk diameter of 1.5 

 meters. It prefers the banks of streams and lakes, or 

 the edges of marshes. 



The bark of old trees is quite thick, ridged, scaly 

 and light brown, that of young trees is smooth and 

 gray. The young twigs are green, and either smooth 

 or finely velvety; they become purplish and covered 

 with a bloom. The leaves are pinnately compound, 

 usually with 3 leaflets, but there are sometimes 5 leaf- 

 lets; the end leaflet is long-stalked, the lateral ones 

 short-stalked ; in shape the leaflets vary from ovate to 

 oval, ovate-lanceolate or obovate; they are thin, entire- 

 margined or coarsely toothed, rarely 3-lobed, some- 

 what hairy on both sides when young, smooth above or minutely papillose when 

 old, more or less hairj' on the under side when mature, bright green on both sur- 



FiG. 606. Ash-leaved Maple. 



