Black Maple – Acer nigrum

 

Nomenclature:

  • Acer nigrum
  • Family: Aceraceae

 

Botany and Ecology:

  • Tree height: 60’-  80’
  • Tree diameter: 2’- 3’
  • Leaves are broad, flat, simple, palmately lobed, U-shaped notches, and hairy beneath the leaf
  • Fruit has paired wings that are 60 to 90 degrees apart and about 1” long
  • Grows in moist soils of mixed hardwood forests
  • Appearance is close to that of the sugar maple but the older bark of the Black Maple is blackish and dark gray in color
  • Distribution:
    • United States: AL, AR, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV
    • Canada: ON, QC, YT

Uses:

  • Edible:
    • Sap contains sugar and can be used as a drink or concentrated into a syrup
    • used as a sweetener
    • Seeds can be boiled and roasted
    • Inner bark can be dried and turned into a powder then used as a thickening agent in soups

·        Medicinal:

    • Inner bark used in treating diarrhea
  • Other:
    • Wood used for furniture, ship building, etc.
    • Source of timber

 

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