Bare maple
| Bare maple | ||||||||||||
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Branch with leaves and fruits |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Acer glabrum | ||||||||||||
| Torr. |
The bald maple ( Acer glabrum ) is a small tree or shrub of the maple genus in the soap tree family (Sapindaceae). The natural range is in the USA and Canada.
description
The bald maple is a dioecious or polygamous tree or shrub up to 10 meters high with bare, initially red-brown and later olive-green shoots. The leaves are three to five lobed, rarely threefold, 6 to 15 centimeters wide with a rounded outline and a weakly heart-shaped to broadly wedge-shaped base. The lobes are more or less pointed or pointed briefly, the leaf margin is sharply double serrated. The upper side of the leaf is glossy dark green, the underside is lighter to blue-green. Both sides are completely hairless. The petiole is red. The leaves turn yellow in autumn. The yellowish green, 6 millimeter wide flowers grow 5 to 15 in umbels . The species blooms in May. The fruits are 1.5 to 2 inches long. The wing, which is often pink in summer, is spread at right angles to almost parallel.
Distribution and ecology
The distribution area is located in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, Alaska and the west and the center of the USA to California. The species grows in species-poor forests on moderately dry to fresh, acidic to neutral, sandy soils in sunny locations. The species is frost hardy.
Systematics and research history
The Kahle maple ( Acer glabrum ) is a kind of the genus of maple ( Acer ) in the family of soap tree plants (Sapindaceae). There he is the section glabra , serial glabra assigned. It was first described in 1827 by John Torrey in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York .
There are two subspecies:
- Acer glabrum subsp. glabrum
- Acer glabrum subsp. douglasii (Hook.) Wesm. with three to five lobed, but never fingered, 5 to 10 centimeters wide leaves with a weakly heart-shaped base. The lobes are sharply pointed and sawed incised. The middle lobe is broadly ovate with pointed teeth. The fruit wings are wider than those of the glabrum subspecies . The distribution area of the subspecies extends from Alaska over western Canada to the northwest of the USA.
use
The species is rarely used as an ornamental wood because of its unusual autumn colors .
literature
- Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , pp. 68-69.
