Acer saccharinum
Silver Maple
Aceraceae

Located near south dorms by bus stop.

  • leaves opposite, 5-lobes, with sinuses dissected strongly almost to the petiole attachment (contrast with A. rubrum)
  • leaves bright green above, shiny silver beneath (a notable feature)
  • leaf sinuses are smooth margined
  • leaf lobes have large teeth along margin
  • buds imbricate, red-brown, with round flower buds clustered densely at nodes
  • stems thin, smooth, red-brown; malodorous when bruised
  • stem tips are often pendulous
  • flowers red, in earliest spring before leaves, apetalous
  • fruit is a schizocarp with samaras spreading at a near 90° angle
  • fruit falls by summer, thus none are visible in fall
  • bark gray and smooth when young; with age becoming scaly with fissures/furrows
  • habit is a large tree with upright main branches
  • plant has pendulous branchlets on outside of tree that turn up at the tips

    View Acer saccharinum page in the UConn Plant Database


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