#IDENTIFY TYPE OF MAPLE TREE FULL#

Its smooth gray bark becomes irregularly grooved and shaggy as it matures. It is sometimes mistaken for Red Maple when it has 5-lobed leaves, but the Silver Maple has very deeply cut leaf lobes that are very sharply acuminate compared to the very shallow acuminate lobes of the Red Maple. Identifying Features: Silver Maple has a unique silver color on the underside of its leaves that makes it easy to distinguish it from all other maples. Other Common Names: Creek Maple, Silverleaf Maple, Soft Maple, Water Maple, Swamp Maple, White Maple It should not be planted too close to a sidewalk, road, foundation, etc. It used to frequently be used as a street tree because of its tolerance, but it has shallow roots that can be aggressive.

#IDENTIFY TYPE OF MAPLE TREE FULL#

It does not grow in full shade, preferring full sun or part shade. It is a fast-growing and highly adaptable tree that tolerates various soils, climates, water, and urban conditions. Image by Renee Mcgurk – Silver Maple, CC BY 2.0 However, it becomes very rare a little north of Vancouver, British Columbia.Īverage Size at Maturity: 40 – 75 (to 158) ft tall, 30 – 50(to 104) ft spread Native Area: The Pacific Northwest from the southeastern tip of Alaska south to San Diego, California. It has a very thick trunk with furrowed gray bark that is usually heavily covered with moss and other epiphytes. Identifying Features: The Bigleaf Maple’s 6 – 12 (up to 24)” deeply 5-lobed palmate leaves make it very easy to identify as no other maple trees have such large leaves. Other Common Names: Oregon Maple, Broadleaf Maple They turn beautiful shades of gold and yellow in the fall, creating a spectacular sight in the forest. Its huge leaves are 6 – 12” (up to 24”) across and have five deeply cut palmate lobes that typically each have 1-2 lobes or lobules of their own. Usually, however, they only reach about 75 ft tall. It grows well in full sun or partial shade.īigleaf Maple is our largest maple, with the largest specimens reaching 158 ft tall and a trunk diameter of 12 ft. It is native to the Pacific Northwest, where it grows at low to middle elevations in riparian areas and open mixed or coniferous forests within 190 miles of the coastline.

It is a large, beautiful tree with huge leaves, and it is always covered with an array of epiphytic mosses, clubmoss, lichens, and ferns. To say that Bigleaf Mapleis an impressive tree would be putting it mildly. Occasionally maple leaf margins are entire, without any teeth at all. If the tooth cuts less than ¼ of the distance to the midvein, it is a large tooth. If the distance it cuts is more than ¼ of the distance to the midvein, it is a lobule. The distinction between a large tooth and a lobule is a bit more subjective but follows a 25% rule. Another way to look at it is that in palmate leaves, a lobe typically has a main vein running to it, while a lobule typically does not. A lobule is different from a lobe because a lobule is a projection of a lobe rather than a stand-alone feature.

In many maples, the teeth become so large they are often referred to as lobules meaning small lobes.

Sometimes the teeth are almost crenate (rounded-toothed, smooth, not jagged or sharp) or crenate-serrate, where they are somewhere in between. Sometimes they are double-serrated, where the teeth have teeth of their own. The teeth can be very small or fine, or often they are widely spaced and large.

Maple leaves are often serrated with sharp, jagged saw-like teeth. Identifying Maple Trees by Their Leaf Margins

Identify type of maple tree