BOX ELDER. VSH-L1 V> ED M \l'l I 

 rr nctjundo I.. 



The Maple Familj 



Habit and Habitat: A medium-sized tree, feel tall, with a 



trunk diameter of 10-24 inches. The trunk is often ill-shape. 1. twitted, 

 and gnarled, dividing Dear the ground into several stout, irregular, 

 widely-spreading branches, forming a broad, open, unsymmetrical crown. 



Pn . deep, rich and moist soil along stream courses and in vail 



but will do well in almost any situation. 



Leaves and Buds: Leaves opposite, pinnately compound. LeanN 



. 2-4 inches long. l'r- 1 ; inches broad, ovate or oval, rounded or 

 wedge-shaped at the ba>< . coarsely and irregularly toothed above the 

 middle, the terminal leaflet often being li-lobed, smooth or more or less 

 hairy at maturity, veins very prominent. Petiole long, slender, i 

 inches long, bases enlarged and often hairy. Leaf scars crescent-shaped. 

 Terminal bud ^-^ inch long, acute, with dull red scales, often whitish 

 or minutely hairy, lateral buds smaller, obtuse. 



Flowers and Fruits: Flowers produced in April, with or preced- 

 ing the leaves, yellow-green, staminate and pistillate on different trees; 

 iminate in open clusters borne on long, thread-like, hairy .-talks; pis- 

 tillate in narrow, greenish, drooping clusters with hairy stalks; calyx 

 hairy, "i-lobed; corolla 0; stamens 4-tf; ovary hairy, wing-margined. 

 Fruit borne in drooping clusters with stalks 1-3 inches long, clinging to 

 the tree until late in the fall or even through the winter, each of the 

 double-winged "keys'" l 1 2 -2 inches long, with strongly curved wings, 

 bearing a thread-like pedicel at the middle, mature in late summer. 



Bark. Twigs and Wood: Bark on old branches and the main trunk 

 pale gray or light brown, deeply fissured into ridges and more or less 

 scaly; twitrs pale to light green, or purplish, bluish or hoary, smooth, 

 brittle. Wood light, soft, close-grained, weak, creamy white with thick, 

 hardly distinguishable sapwood, sometimes reddish-streaked; of little 

 value except for fuel, cheap wooden-ware and paper pulp. 



Distribution in the State: The box elder is probably the most widely 

 distributed American maple. Found in all parts of Nebraska and very 

 widely and abundantly planted in this state. Map 4' 



t 



Remarks: The box elder is in reality a true maple but the pinnately- 

 compound leaves have led many people to believe that it was a very dif- 

 ferent tree from our other common maples. The tree has been widely 

 planted and esteemed as a street tree and for windbreaks in exposed 

 situations, for which purposes it has been popular because of its rapid 

 (rrowth and relative hardiness. However, we have many better trees for 

 street and lawn planting. 



The mountain maple. Acer glabrum Torrey, should be mentioned in 

 connection with our other maples. This is a large shrub or small tree 

 growing naturally in the Rocky mountains and which has entered the 



-tern end of the state in Sioux and Scottsbluflf counts The t' 



are 12-2") feet tall with trunk diam< . often growing in 



clumps. The leaves air often very deeply 3-5 or 7-lobed. 



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