A tree with 🌳︎ broadleaves arranged ╫ opposite, blade division=🍁︎ simple, margin=♧ lobed, 3–7 main leaf veins radiating from 🍁︎ one point (✋︎ palmate), sinuses=∪ rounded (U-shaped), base=∪ rounded, width=length.
Very similar to the
🍬︎🍁︎ sugar maple Acer saccharum
(in the black maple, the leaves are ♧ 3-lobed [4+5 are very small], undersurface=​hairy, and the sides droop), some authors consider them to be the same species, others different populations.
Part of
🍁︎ maple genus Acer
in
soapberry family Sapindaceae
in
cashew / 🌰︎ chestnut / 🍊︎ citrus / 🍁︎ maple order Sapindales.
Native to much of the range of 🍬︎🍁︎ sugar maple: very-southern 🇨🇦 Canada, and the 🇺🇸 USA Midwest.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48),
🗺 map (North America, Central America),
🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Like the 🍬︎🍁︎ sugar maple, tapped to make great maple syrup (zhiiwaagamizigan in
Anishinaabemowin
) and maple sugar (ziinzibaakwad). We assume its 🪵 wood is also made into hardwood floors and furniture.
Acer hosts caterpillars of 285 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
This plant is also known to be a host for (in areas where invasive)
🐝︎ spotted lanternfly (SLF) Lycorma delicatula.