Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)

A deciduous tree from the Maple Family (Aceraceae)

Silver Maple, a tree found throughout all of Ohio, is a common shade tree in urban areas and primarily a wet site tree in rural areas. Its leaves are the most deeply indented of any type of maple, and it is named for the fact that its leaf undersides are silvery, and in a breeze the bicolor effect of dark green and silver hues is displayed in its canopy.

Silver Maple is native to most of the eastern half of the United States, except for the Atlantic Coast and Florida. Specimens found in the open may easily grow to 80 feet tall by 60 feet wide, with a rapid growth rate that produces brittle wood prone to storm damage. Its branching is upright but irregular and sparse when young, becoming more dense and spreading with maturity. A distinctive trait of the lower branches is that they become very pendulous yet upswept at their tips. As a member of the Maple Family, it is related to all other species of Maple.

Planting Requirements - The adaptability of Silver Maple to a wide range of soils (organic, clay, sandy, or rocky) and moisture levels (wet, moist, or dry) accounts for its widespread planting in urban sites, although it strongly prefers wetland areas (swamps, river banks, flood plains) in nature. This site preference gives it the alternative common name of Water Maple. It grows in full sun to partial sun, and is found in zones 3 to 9.

Potential Problems - Although Silver Maple can be infected by several diseases (including leaf anthracnose, Verticillium wilt, and bleeding canker) and pests (including bladder-gall mite and cottony maple scale), it in general is a healthy tree that survives and thrives under almost all conditions, without any problems. However, surface roots (even at a young age in compacted or shallow soils), significant storm damage (throughout its life due to brittle wood), heavy seed litter (in some years, on some trees), and quickly reaching dimensions that are far beyond its intended size, are notable liabilities.

Leaf Identification Features

Leaves of Silver Maple are opposite, have long petioles, and have five lobes, each lobe of which is deeply incised and toothed. The dark green leaves have silvery undersides that are easily exposed in the slightest breeze, giving this tree its common name.

The ability of this tree's leaves to easily turn over in the wind is due to the wide leaf blades that catch the breeze, and the long petioles that allow them to easily twist. Fall color is usually a poor chartreuse, sometimes tinged with gold, red, or brown. In exceptional autumns, it can be a good golden-yellow.

Other Identification Features

Flowers of Silver Maple emerge long before the leaves and give a reddish cast to the otherwise bare twigs as early as mid-winter, and last into early spring. Sometimes yellow or orange hues predominate as floral colors rather than red, depending upon the individual tree. While separate male and female flowers are borne on the same tree (and thus this species is monoecious), a given tree usually has a majority of its flowers as either male and therefore is nearly seedless or female resulting in heavy fruit set and fruit litter in some springs.

Fruits (actually paired samaras) hang in clusters from Silver Maple in spring. Each fruit is composed of a thick anchoring seed attached to an elongated, wide wing that may be straight or curved. In springs that do not have many frosts, heavy fruit litter may result from some trees. The single samaras of Silver Maple spin like propellers when they fall from the tree in mid- to late spring.

The twigs of Silver Maple are reddish-brown at the end of the first-year's growth, but turn to silvery gray by the end of the second year's growth. A quick way to differentiate between Silver and Red Maples is to break or bruise the twigs of each; Silver Maple will have a rank odor, while Red Maple will not.

The smooth, silvery, immature bark of young trees quickly begins to form long rough scales that turn up at their ends with age, giving this tree a shaggy appearance while it is still less than twenty years old. Mature bark of older trees is gray-brown with exterior scales and plates, and has an orange interior bark. Silver Maple also develops a flared basal trunk that merges with its large surface roots.