Acer negundo

Boxelder 

Boxelder saplings, with their occasional leaves-of-three, are often mistaken for poison ivy, though the two plants could not be more different. While poison ivy grows as a vine and cannot grow more than a few feet without support, the boxelder is a freestanding tree that can grow up to 75 feet tall. Although the boxelder’s soft wood makes it a poor choice for commercial lumber, it often has multiple trunks, making it a great climbing tree for children. Its sap is sweet and sugary, and though not as sweet as that of some other maples, it is sometimes used to make a type of syrup called “mountain molasses.”  

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Boxelder Acer negundo L.  

COMMON NAMES boxelder, ashleaf maple  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves opposite, pinnately compound, with three to seven leaflets, margin with coarse teeth and shallow lobes; twig bright green; fruit a double samara with a flattened seed cavity; bark gray-brown and grooved.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are opposite, pinnately compound, deciduous, and up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long but can be longer, with a petiole swollen at the base and three to seven (occasionally nine) leaflets. Leaflets are ovate to elliptical and 5-10 cm (2.0-3.9 in) long; margin is coarsely serrate and often shallowly lobed; autumn color is yellow. Twigs are bright green, glabrous, and possibly glaucous, with lenticels; leaf scar is very narrowly V-shaped with three bundle scars, and opposite leaf scars meet. The terminal bud is ovoid to acute and about 5 mm (0.2 in) long; scales are overlapping, yellow-green, and pubescent; lateral bud is yellow-white and pubescent. Flowers are dioecious; staminate flowers are in long, dangling, yellow-green or sometimes red clusters on hairy stalks; pistillate flowers are in smaller drooping clusters; flowers bloom before or with the leaves. Fruit is a double samara, green to brown; wings are 2.5-4 cm (1.0-1.6 in) long and form a 90-degree angle; seed cavity is long, narrow, and flattened; fruit matures in the summer. Bark is green-gray and smooth on small trees; large trees are gray-brown and shallowly grooved. The growth form is up to 2 3 m (75 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in diameter.  

HABITAT Floodplains and on edges of streams and swamps but also found on upland sites.  

NOTES Boxelder is a fast-growing, short-lived tree found with red maple, silver maple, river birch, sugarberry, ashes, sweetgum, sycamore, eastern cottonwood, bottomland oaks, black willow, and American elm. The wood is weak, brittle, and soft, and is used for fuel, crates, woodenware, and pulpwood. The seeds are eaten by birds and small to midsize mammals. Because of its fast growth, this tree is used in windbreaks and to control soil erosion. It is a poor landscape tree due to excessive seeding and sprouting, poor form, and brittle branches.  

Acer is Latin for “maple tree” and refers to the hardness of the wood; negundo refers to similarities with Vitex negundo.