Box elder is a maple that doesn’t often get credit for being a maple. Moreso, it is a tree that is not thought highly of, and it may not even be welcome in certain discussions around maples. You could even say that box elder is a “rogue maple,” as Arthur Plotnick deems it in The Urban Tree Book. It should come as no surprise, but if people are going to talk about a plant this way, it’s only going to make me like it more.
First off, the leaves of Acer negundo are palmately compound, compared to the simple, palmately lobed leaves of other maples. A box elder leaf is generally composed of three leaflets, sometimes five or seven. The center leaflet is on a longer stalk than the side leaflets, which are oppositely arranged. Sometimes the leaves are confused with ash tree leaves (Fraxinus spp.), which is the reason for another common name, ash-leaved maple. It’s also not uncommon for box elder leaves to be mistaken for poison ivy, which is maybe not a plant you’d want to be confused with. In the fall, unlike the beautiful reds, oranges, purples, and yellows of so many other maples, the leaves of box elder turn a drab yellow before dropping, a trait that Plotnick calls “an embarrassment.”
It’s not really its leaf, however, that bothers people. Box elder is a fast-growing and prolific tree. Basically, it’s weedy, and because it grows so quickly, its wood is generally weak and its structure unpredictable. It falls apart easily, and it doesn’t always grow in typical tree fashion. Sometimes its more of a shrub, and sometimes it leans so far over that it practically lies on the ground. It sprouts and suckers in abundance, and as John Eastman puts it in The Book of Forest and Thicket, it “generally ignore(s) human standards for an attractive tree.”
Maybe before people knew better, or during a time when people just needed a fast growing tree to plant in their developing cities, box elders were widely planted across North America and beyond. That and their ability to spread readily helps to obscure their native distribution. Box elder is naturalized across North America, but its original distribution (whatever that means) appears to be more midwestern and eastern. Box elder grows in a variety of conditions, and is actually quite drought tolerant, which has allowed it to feel right at home in the American west, whether it is truly native here or not.
Identifying box elder in the winter can be pretty easy, especially if you come across a seed-bearing individual. Box elders are dioecious, meaning male and female flowers occur on separate individuals (another thing that sets them apart from other maples). A samara-bearing tree is a female tree, and the samaras often hang from the branches in great numbers. Like other maples, the fruits are paired together, each seed with a prominent wing. The samaras of boxelder point downward and hang from long stalks, persisting on the tree throughout the winter.
The twigs of box elder are glaucous (covered with a thin, powdery bloom) and can be either green, bluish-white, or reddish-purple. They have tiny, white lenticles, and their buds are oppositely arranged. Leaf scars are a broad U-shape, and scars opposite of each other meet at the tops of the U’s, coming to a raised point. At least three bundle traces (sometimes more) are visible in the scar. Leaf buds are protected by two scales that are covered in dense, white hairs. The scales are similar in color to the twigs, but appear more white due to the fuzz. Lateral buds are 1/8 inch long or longer. Slicing open the twigs lengthwise reveals solid, white pith in the center that blends in easily with the wood.
The bark of young box elders has slight vertical ridges and is light brown or grey-brown, with dull orange, raised, wart-like lenticels. It is finely scaly. The scales and ridges become more rough and blocky as the tree ages. Mature bark is light brown to grey and heavily furrowed, with blocky segments breaking apart horizontally.
A few years ago I was introduced to a massive box elder in Boise, Idaho. It quickly became my favorite tree in the area, and I visit it frequently. For all the hate that box elder can receive, seeing its potential to create an experience that few other trees in the area offer can send all of that negative talk out the window. Visit something like it yourself sometime, and see what it can do for you.
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