Acer pensylvanicum
| Acer pensylvanicum | |
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| Striped Maple leaves, Cranberry Wilderness, West Virginia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Sapindaceae |
| Genus: | Acer |
| Species: | A. pensylvanicum |
| Binomial name | |
| Acer pensylvanicum L. 1853 |
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| Natural range | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Acer pensylvanicum (striped maple, also known as moosewood and moose maple) is a small North American species of maple.
Description[edit]
It is a small deciduous tree growing to 5–10 meters (17-33 feet) tall, with a trunk up to 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter.[2]
The young bark is striped with green and white, and when a little older, brown.[2]
The leaves are broad and soft, 8–15 cm (3.2-6.0 inches) long and 6–12 cm (2.4-4.8 inches) broad, with three shallow forward-pointing lobes.[2]
The fruit is a samara; the seeds are about 27 mm (1.08 inches) long and 11 mm (0.44 inch) broad, with a wing angle of 145° and a conspicuously veined pedicel.[3][2][4]
The spelling pensylvanicum is the one originally used by Linnaeus.
Distribution[edit]
The natural range extends from Nova Scotia and the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, west to southern Ontario, Michigan, and Saskatchewan; south to northeastern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and along the Appalachian Mountains as far south as northern Georgia.[5][6]
Ecology[edit]
Moosewood is an understory tree of cool, moist forests, often preferring slopes. It is among the most shade-tolerant of deciduous trees, capable of germinating and persisting for years as a small understory shrub, then growing rapidly to its full height when a gap opens up. However, it does not grow high enough to become a canopy tree, and once the gap above it closes through succession, it responds by flowering and fruiting profusely, and to some degree spreading by vegetative reproduction.[7][8]
References[edit]
- ^ The Plant List, Acer pensylvanicum L.
- ^ a b c d Virginia Tech Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
- ^ Carolina Nature
- ^ Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas
- ^ "Striped Maple". Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ^ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
- ^ Hibbs, D. E; B. C. Fischer (1979). "Sexual and Vegetative Reproduction of Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum L.)". Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 106: 222– 227. doi:10.2307/2484558.
- ^ Hibbs, D. E., Wilson, B. F., & Fischer, B. C. (1980). Habitat Requirements and Growth of Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum L.). Ecology 61 (3): 490-496
External links[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acer pensylvanicum. |
- NRCS: United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile and map: Acer pennsylvanicum
- Interactive Distribution Map of Acer pensylvanicum
