Michigan Trees: A Handbook of the Native and Most Important Introduced Species

by Charles Herbert Otis

3. Flowering branchlet, × 1/2.

4. Staminate flower, enlarged.

5. Pistillate flower, enlarged.

6. Fruit, × 1.

ACERACEAE

Black Maple. Black Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum nigrum (Michx. f.) Britt. [Acer nigrum Michx.]

HABIT.—A stately tree, sometimes reaching a height of 80 feet, with a trunk diameter of 2-3 feet; branches stout, forming a broad, rounded, symmetrical crown.

LEAVES.—Opposite, simple, concave, 5-7 inches across, the breadth usually exceeding the length; usually 5-lobed at maturity, the two lower lobes being small, often reduced to a mere curve in the outline, the pointed lobes undulate or entire and narrowed from the broad, shallow sinuses; thick and firm; glabrous above, downy beneath; petioles stout, usually pendent, tomentose. The sides of the larger leaves often droop giving to the tree an air of depression.