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Striped Maple Acer pennsylvanicum 



Most of our native maples are large trees, at least 50 feet 

 high or more ; but the striped maple and the mountain maple 

 are more frequently shrubby than tree-like. So far as the 

 Hudson Valley is concerned these two kinds, and one other, 

 differentiate themselves, also, from all the other maples by 

 the arrangement of their flowers. In the tall growing kinds 

 there are several flower-stalks that arise at one point, so that 

 there is no real flower-cluster; only several individually 

 stalked flowers. In the striped and mountain maples there is 

 a rather long common flower-stalk which bears numerous 

 stalklets that support the flowers. The whole flower-cluster 

 is often 4 or even 6 inches long. 



The striped maple takes its name from the striping of its 

 young bark. It is prominently marked by white or greenish- 

 white stripes, but these become fainter on the old wood. 

 The broad 3-lobed leaves are often 5 inches long, heart- 

 shaped at the base and usually yellowish-green on the upper 

 surface. From the mountain maple it can readily be dis- 

 tinguished by its drooping flower-clusters. 



The plant occurs mostly as a shrub within the Hudson 

 Valley, but a few good-sized trees are found in the Catskills 

 and farther north it attains a height of from 30 to 40 feet. 

 South of Kingston it is rare in the Hudson Valley. 



Mountain Maple Acer spicatum 



Of the eastern North American maples this species is the 

 smallest. It is usually shrubby and in the Hudson Valley it 

 is doubtful if it attains a greater height than 25 feet. It is 

 a shade-loving plant and in favorable places it is exceedingly 

 common. The leaves are from 3^2 to 43/2 inches long and 

 either 3-lobed or partially 5-lobed. The margins of the 

 lobes are coarsely toothed. The comparatively stiff and 

 erect flower-cluster is a prominent feature of the mountain 

 maple and this character serves as a ready distinction be- 

 tween it and the preceding kind. The fruits, as in all maples, 

 are two-winged, to the imaginative suggesting an old time 



