Acer negundo L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Acer negundo' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-negundo/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

Genus

  • Acer
  • Sect. Negundo, Ser. Negundo

Common Names

  • Box Elder

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

bloom
Bluish or greyish waxy substance on leaves or fruits.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
key
(of fruit) Vernacular English term for winged samaras (as in e.g. Acer Fraxinus Ulmus)
leaflet
Leaf-like segment of a compound leaf.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
pendent
Hanging.
petiole
Leaf stalk.
imparipinnate
Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)
puberulent
Minutely pubescent.
pubescent
Covered in hairs.
rachis
Central axis of an inflorescence cone or pinnate leaf.
subspecies
(subsp.) Taxonomic rank for a group of organisms showing the principal characters of a species but with significant definable morphological differentiation. A subspecies occurs in populations that can occupy a distinct geographical range or habitat.
taxon
(pl. taxa) Group of organisms sharing the same taxonomic rank (family genus species infraspecific variety).
taxonomy
Classification usually in a biological sense.
trifoliolate
With three leaflets.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton

Recommended citation
'Acer negundo' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/acer/acer-negundo/). Accessed 2024-03-18.

A deciduous tree 40 to 70 ft high, with a trunk 2 to 3 ft. in diameter, forming a wide-spreading head of branches; branchlets glabrous. Leaves long-stalked, pinnate, 6 to 10 in. long, consisting of three or five leaflets. Leaflets ovate, 2 to 4 in. long, pointed, coarsely toothed towards the end; upper side bright green, glabrous; lower one slightly downy or eventually glabrous; the terminal leaflet often three-lobed or even trifoliolate. Flowers (male and female on separate trees) yellow-green, without petals, the male ones crowded in dense clusters on the previous year’s shoots, each flower on a slender hairy stalk, 1 to 112 in. long; the females in slender, drooping racemes. Fruit in pendent racemes, 4 to 8 in. long; each key 1 to 112 in. long, with a wing 14 to 13 in. wide, the pair forming an angle of 60° or less.

Native of N. America, where it is widely spread. According to Sargent it is most common in the Mississippi Valley, but reaches as far north as New York State, and as far west as the inland slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was cultivated by Bishop Compton at Fulham in 1688. Although the typical form is by no means common, it is a handsome tree, especially when isolated on a lawn. It is one of the maples that yield sugar in America. There is a tree 45 × 814 ft at Kew but this is exceeded in height by one at Northerwood House, Hants, 52 × 3 ft (1963). In Späth’s nursery, near Berlin, there was once a specimen 60 ft high and 612 ft in girth of trunk.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Kew, 52 × 814 ft (1981); Osterley Park, London, 55 × 4 ft (1976); Myddelton House, Enfield, Middx., 56 × 6 ft (1976); Gastrey Meadow, Farnham, Surrey, 55 × 412 ft (1981); Ashtead Park, Surrey, 46 × 6 ft (1979); Linton Park, Kent, 59 × 814 ft (1984); Wardour Castle, Wilts., 56 × 412 ft (1977); Pinkney Court, Glos., 56 × 5 ft (1981); Jephson Garden, Leamington Spa, Warwicks., 52 × 6 ft (1981).

cv. ‘Variegatum’. – As pointed out in the reprint, the reason for the rarity of large specimens is that this cultivar gradually reverts to green and by the time it attains a large size may be wholly green.

† cv. ‘Flamingo ‘. – Mature leaves resembling those of ‘Variegatum’ but tinted with rose when young. This cultivar has not been fully tested. It is likely to be decorative only when young or if pruned. Raised in Holland.

var. violaceum – The most attractive feature of this maple is that the flowers too are purple or reddish. There is a fine specimen in the Hillier Arboretum, Ampfield, Hants, measuring 43 × 6 ft (1986).

From New Trees

Acer negundo L.

(Sect. Negundo, Ser. Negundo)

Ash-leaved Maple, Box Elder

It may seem very odd to include so familiar a species in a book on recent introductions, but the resolution of the taxonomy of Acer negundo has resulted in the description of several subspecific taxa whose names are appearing only now in catalogues and the literature, although the plants they cover may have been cultivated for some time. The great advantage of A. negundo is its adaptability, it being tolerant in one form or another of great heat and/or great cold, although it is often unattractively shaped and sometimes weedy. The abundant fruits it produces can be a pleasing feature in themselves, hanging on the tree long after the leaves have fallen.

A recent collection from Pico de Orizaba, Puebla, Mexico of subsp. mexicanum (F&M 48) may be the first introduction of this taxon to cultivation. It is too soon to make a judgement on its hardiness or garden-worthiness, but young plants have survived lengthy periods of being frozen solid in their pots. The stems are violet with a white bloom and produce red-flushed new leaves with red petiole and rachis (Pan Global Plants catalogue 2006). In the wild the trees were 7–9 m tall.

Acer negundo was described by Bean (B213, S48) and Krüssmann (K85). In this book, rather than giving separate descriptions for individual subspecific taxa of this distinctive species, we provide a key to the subspecies and varieties, below.

1a.Branchlets glabrous or almost so2
1b.Branchlets pubescent3
2a.Leaflets three to seven (to nine), olive-green to fresh green, 5–10 × 3–5 cm, glabrous; Canada (Ontario), USA (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin)subsp. negundo
2b.Leaflets three, dark green, but paler beneath, 6–8 × 2.5–3 cm, densely tomentose beneath; Guatemala, Mexico (Chiapas, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala, Veracruz)subsp. mexicanum (DC.) Wesm.
3a.Leaflets glabrous beneath or slightly hairy on the midrib; Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan), USA (Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming)subsp. interius (Britton) Á. Löve & D. Löve
3b.Leaflets thickly tomentose to puberulent4
4a.Leaflets three to seven, ovate, tomentose when immature, covered in white hairs at maturity; USA (California)subsp. californicum (Torr. & A. Gray) Wesm.
4b.Leaflets three, broadly elliptic, puberulent beneath; USA (Arizona, Missouri, Texas)subsp. californicum var. texanum Pax

'Auratum'

Leaflets wholly yellow; this variety is one of the best of golden-coloured trees, and retains its colour until autumn. Branchlets green with a white bloom. Späth’s nurseries, 1891, where it arose as a sport from a variegated form known as ‘Aureo-limbatum’. G. Krüssmann, in Handbuch der Laubgehölze, points out that this clone is not the same as ‘Odessanum’, as has commonly been assumed.


'Aureo-marginatum'

Leaflets marked as in the common variegated box elder but with yellow instead of white. Dieck’s nurseries before 1885.

'Crispum'

Leaflets curled, often deformed; shrubby. In cultivation before 1825. A male clone. See Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit., Vol. 1, p. 460.

'Elegans'

Leaves glossy green, with a broad margin of yellow; young growths with a bluish bloom. Apparently of French origin and put into commerce as A. n. aureomarginatum elegans.

'Heterophyllum'

Leaflets reduced to a linear or lanceolate shape, and with more or less deeply cut margins. Späth’s nurseries, 1883.

'Odessanum'

Leaves golden yellow as in ‘Auratum’ (q.v.), but the branchlets densely downy; put into commerce by Rothe’s nursery, Odessa, Russia, in 1890; in cultivation on the continent.

var. violaceum (Kirchn.) Jäg

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AGM

Young branchlets purplish, covered with a glaucous bloom. Such forms are common in the Middle West of the United States. As an ornamental tree its most valuable characteristic is that the filaments are pinkish-red, giving a striking effect when it is in flower in early spring.


'Variegatum'

One of the commonest of variegated trees, once largely used in town gardens and grown in pots for the decoration of halls and large rooms. The leaflets have an irregular border of white, or are sometimes wholly white. It first appeared as a sport on the green-leaved type in a nursery at Toulouse in 1845, but trees of a large size appear to be very uncommon. It is female, and the fruits are variegated like the leaves.