SILVER II iPLE. SOFT M \l'l I 

 .1 rcr saccharinutn I ■. 



The Maple I'amil} 

 M i.k M i U 



Habit and Hahit nt : A large, beautiful tree, reaching a height of * 

 or even LOO feet, with a trunk dian • f 2 i feet; trunk booii divi- 



ding into 3-fi Btout, upright, secondary stems with few lateral branches 

 for considerable distance, forming a wide-spreading crown with many 

 slender, drooping branches. When planted on both sides of a street the 

 crowns often close over the street. Prefers low, rich and moist bottom- 

 lands and alluvial flats but grows quite well upon rat hoi- dry uplands. 



Leaves and Huds: Leaves opposite, simple, :\-~ inches long and 

 almost as wide, palmately 5-lobed with narrow, acute indentations 



and pointed, sharply-toothod divisions, the middle lobe often being 3- 

 lobed, base more or less heart-shaped, light green above, silvery white, 

 but not hairy beneath, turning pale yellow in the fall; petioles long, 

 slender, drooping, red, smooth. Flower buds in clusters, dark 

 blunt, about J 4 inch long; leaf buds smaller, opposite, inner scales en- 

 larging and becoming yellow in early spring. 



Flowers and Fruits: Flowers appearing in March or early April, 

 before the leaves, small; staminate yellow-green; pistillate reddish, 

 in crowded, stalkless clusters; calyx 5-lobed, downy, long and narrow or 

 short and broad; corolla 0; stamens 3-7, long; ovary hairy, 2-lobed, 

 wing-margined; styles bright red. Fruit composed of two unequal wings 

 joined together forming a maple "key", borne on slender droop 

 pedicels l 1 --.'. inches long, wings curving inward, %-% inch wide. 

 greenish, yellow becoming light brown, seed germinating at once, not 

 retaining its vitality for many days. 



Bark, Twigs and Wood: The twigs are red or reddish-gray, and 

 the bark on the larger branches is smooth or roughish, and pinkish gray, 

 old trunks dark gray, more or less furrowed, the surface separating into 

 large, thin, loose scales. Wood hard, heavy, strong, close-grained, 

 brittle, pale brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution in the State: Occurs abundantly in the fo of 



Missouri from which it has extended up the Missouri river nearly to 

 the mouth of the Niobrara and thence westward fifty to sixty miles, in 

 the moist lands along the streams, and extending westward along the 

 south border of the state to Thayer county. Found abundantly through- 

 out the Mississippi valley where it is one of the largest and most common 

 trees; rare along the Atlantic coast. Map 46. 



Remarks: This is probably the most rapidly growing maple tree 

 and is very desirable as an ornamental or fuel producing species. The 

 Bilvery under surfaces of the leave- are particularly pleasing as the 



leaves are turned sboui by the I This is the first native plant 



to bta m in Nebraska, it often being in flower late in February or early 

 March at Lincoln. It is very hardy in this region and has beconv 

 lervedly popular tree for street and lawn planting, but it is rather 

 -ily injured and broken by the occasional ice storms and sev- nd^ 



that visit our state. Maple sugar is sometimes mad, from the sap of 

 this tree. 



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