Ash-leaved Maple
Ash-leaved Maple (Acer negundo)
Maple family Aceraceae
Origin: North America
Description: Fast growing tree up to 20m with a short trunk and an irregularly domed crown. Bark smooth and grey, becoming darker and shallowly cracked with age. Twigs green, hairless. Leaves opposite, 10-15cm long, pinnate with 5 to 7, ovate, pointed and toothed leaflets which are hairless beneath. Flowers without petals, red males and green females in clusters appearing before the leaves on different trees. Fruit 2cm long, winged and borne in pairs on a single stalk, the two wings making a narrow angle.
Comments: Unusual among maples in having pinnate leaves, not palmately lobed leaves. Sometimes called box-elder, though it is not related to either box or elder.
A yellow and green variegated form is sometimes planted.
Similar trees
- Easily mistaken for Ash.
