THE MAPLE FAMILY
If you meet a tree of good size, with slender branches, and small buds set opposite upon the twigs, you may suspect it of being a maple. The leaves are needed to assure you. If it is winter time, and the tree stands on the street, the leaves may all have been raked away. If the tree grows in the woods, the chances are that there is a leaf carpet over its roots, and that most of these leaves have fallen from its branches. You can make sure of this point by picking up a dead leaf, examining the base of its stalk to see if it fits the leaf scars on the twigs. If the leaves are simple, that is, if they have a single blade, the evidence that this is a maple is very strong. There are a few small trees with simple leaves set opposite on the twigs, but they do not grow as large as maples.
Does the leaf have three main divisions, each with a vein which is one of three large branches of the leaf stalk? Then you may be sure that the tree is one of the maple family.
Simple leaves, of three main lobes, set opposite on the twigs, and the twigs set opposite on the branches,—in these are the plain signature of the maples. They write their names in these characters, across every branch throughout the growing season, and on the leafless branches, and the dead leaves under the tree in winter. Another signature is the one-sided maple key, which hangs on the trees all summer, and even late into the winter on some kinds, but is shed in early summer by a few.
The two early-blooming maples are commonly planted as street and shade trees all over the Eastern half of the country. It is easy to recognise these, and to know them apart by the leaf alone.
The red maple is a spreading, symmetrical tree, of medium size with slender, erect branches. The leaves are red when they open in spring; so are the flowers which cluster on the bare twigs in early April, before the leaves are out. The clustered fruits that dangle in pairs all along the stems in May are red, and in the autumn the tree changes its green robe of foliage to scarlet before winter comes. The buds that cluster at the joints are red as rubies, and the slim twigs glow with the same warm colour, which is warmer by contrast with the snow.
All maple leaves are more or less cleft into three main divisions. The red maple has two shallow clefts, V-shaped, at the top, and the lobes are pointed and triangular. The margins are irregularly saw-toothed. These leaves are often downy beneath, and always white-lined when young. In summer they have pale green linings. As a rule, red maple leaves are small, averaging less than three inches in the length of their blades. They are larger on young trees.
The silver maple is much more easily grown from seed than the red maple, but it has a far more irregular tree top. The limbs branch low on the trunk, and these limbs grow very long, giving the tree a loose head of great height, and great horizontal spread. The small branches curve downward, and the twigs are held erect. The wind twists and breaks these great weak limbs, or wrenches them loose from the trunk. It is dangerous to have these trees near the house, for wind and ice storms are constantly snapping off branches large enough to break windows, or knock down chimneys as they fall.
The flowers of the red maple are concealed in winter in brown buds
Seeds of red maple, in late May, and in early April
The flowers of the silver maple show no red. They come out greenish-yellow on the twigs when the red maple’s flowers are glowing on their red twigs in March, and early April. The leaves are pale green, white beneath, and set on long flexible stems. They are larger than the leaves of the red maple, and cleft in a distinctly different way. A narrow, deep fissure divides the leaf in thirds, and two side clefts divide the lower lobes in two unequal halves. These fissures reach two-thirds of the way through the leaf blade, and each lobe is cleft along its sides, into many irregular bays and capes. These leaves are always silvery white beneath in summer, and they turn to yellow in the autumn.
In late May the pairs of winged keys hang on short stems. Each key is about two inches long, fuzzy green, until ripe, twice the length of the smooth keys of the red maple, which are ripening at the same time.
It is good fun to lie under a maple tree, and watch the seeds as they fall. If the wind is strong, they shower down like rain. Each key separates from its mate, and as it lets go its hold on the twig, the wind catches its thin wing, and sends it whirling round and round. The heavy seed makes for the earth, while the flat blade above it acts as a parachute, or a sail, to keep it in the air.
How far does a silver maple send its seeds in these summer days, when they are falling? It is easy to answer this question by pacing the distance from the tree trunk in a straight line to the point where the farthest key falls. Go in the direction towards which the wind is blowing, in determining this distance. It will be interesting to run out another line from the tree trunk to find out how far the seeds are thrown on the side that is against the wind.
From the silver maple go to a red maple, and watch the harvest of these small-winged keys. Do a little measuring here, and find out if their smaller size and weight enables these seeds to sail further in the same breeze than those of the silver maple.
The sugar maple is known also as the rock or hard maple, because its wood is harder, and therefore slower to grow, than the two quick-growing soft maples just described. This is the one whose trunk is tapped in spring, and the sap boiled down in great kettles over an open fire in the woods. When the water is all evaporated, solid cakes of maple sugar remain. If you are walking in the woods in winter, and come upon any trees bored with small auger holes, several near the base of each trunk, you may suspect that this is a grove of hard maples which the New England farmer calls his “sugar bush.”
Look at the twigs, and you will see that the plump round buds are set opposite, and the twigs are opposite on the branch. This is the way with all maple trees. Are the branches many, and do they shoot upward rather than outward, and form an oval head? This is the typical habit of young hard maple trees. As they grow older the heavy lower limbs become horizontal. They are clean, hardy, vigorous trees, long-lived, dependable, able to meet the storms, and to suffer the theft of their rich sap every spring without apparent loss of strength and vitality.
The leaves come out later than those of the soft maples. They are firm, and broad, with five pointed lobes between wide fissures that reach half-way to the stem. Margins of these lobes are wavy, never saw-toothed, like those of the silver maple. They are dark green above, with paler linings. In autumn they turn to yellow, orange, and red.
The flowers open in May, shortly after the leaves appear. They are in thick, hairy, yellowish clusters. Some are pistillate, some staminate, in the same cluster. Those with the forked pistils remain and grow into smooth fruits towards the end of summer. The keys of sugar maples are short-winged, like those of the red maple, but have stouter, thicker seeds. They are shed in late autumn and early winter.
Hard maples are among the best of shade trees, and the glory of their autumn colouring makes them one of the most to be desired among trees planted merely for ornament. A street planted to hard maples is well planted always. But people are impatient for trees to grow up. The slow growth of the sugar maple is discouraging. It is a good plan to plant the quick-growing soft maples, and alternate with them the slow-growing species. For a few years the soft maples are pretty, and with each year’s growth they give more abundant shade. By the time the wind has crippled their long arms, and made the trees unsightly, the hard maples are coming on to take their places, and they need the room which is given them by the removal of their neighbours on to the left and right.
When I went into the woods of Oregon, I found the vine maple trees, which seems not to have sufficient backbone to stand upright. These trees start to grow erect, but their weight soon overcomes their strength, and they droop, but keep on growing, with their limbs prostrate on the ground. The wet land in many places was covered with a network of the interfering branches of these serpentine maple trees.
The leaf is about the size of the palm of my hand, and almost circular. The border is cut into many shallow lobes. The seeds are characteristic keys, smooth, and the wings of each pair are spread almost opposite each other.
The Norway maple is a most popular street tree. Its foliage is very dense, and the tree forms a round, symmetrical head. The broad, five-lobed leaves are remotely toothed, smooth, thin, and dark green on both sides. Break a leaf stem, and a milky juice appears. The seeds are very flat, and have broad, flaring wings. The flowers are yellowish. Great clusters of them come out with the leaves. The seeds are ripe in autumn.
We shall find that the foliage of the Norway maple stands the wear and tear better than that of many shade trees. The crown of a Norway maple turns to bright gold in autumn, and most of the leaves are still unmarred when they fall.
The box elder is the one native maple which has compound leaves. The leaf blade is cleft quite to the stem, and the thirds form separate leaflets, each mounted on its own stalk. These leaves are set opposite on the twigs, like those of other maples.
In spring pink fringes like corn silk decorate the branches of certain box elder trees. Other trees of the same kind hide little green flowers among the opening leaves. The pink fringes are the pollen-bearing flowers, which fall when ripe. Staminate trees never bear fruit. All through the summer the trees which bore the greenish flower are dangling clusters of pale green seeds, each with the peculiar wing, which proves it a maple. When the ragged, yellowing foliage falls, these seed clusters remain on the branches, and all through the winter the wind is plucking and carrying them away.
The wood of box elder is very soft. The tree is planted because it grows so quickly and surely, and its seeds are so easily obtained. But broken branches give the older trees a crippled, unhappy look, and the ragged clusters of seeds give them a disheveled appearance all winter. Fortunate is the man who has planted elms or hard maples along the road, so that he may take out the decrepit box elders, and have the better trees coming on to take their places.
The striped maple is a little tree, which hides in the woods, and only a few people know the tree, and love it as it deserves. The stripes are on its smooth green bark, which breaks into a network of furrows as the stems increase in diameter. These furrows expose a very pale under-bark, so that at a short distance the trunk seems to be delicately traced with white lines.
In its blossoming season the striped maple has a loose, drooping cluster of yellow, bell-like flowers. The leaves that surround them are broad and shallowly three-lobed, and saw-toothed all around. The seeds are little maple keys, smaller than those of the red maple.
The mountain maple is another little tree quite as modest and retiring as its striped cousin. It has longer, more taper-pointed leaves. The flower clusters are much smaller than those of the striped maple, and they stand erect. The fruits hang late in the winter, on the grey downy twigs, which are brightened by red buds.